History books are wrong, Jodha-Akbar marriage a lie: Rajasthan Governor
The marriage between Mughal Emperor Akbar and a Rajput princess popularly referred to as 'Jodha Bai' was a fabrication and one of many historical inaccuracies introduced due to the early influence of British historians, Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagade has claimed.Speaking at a public event in Udaipur, the governor further argued that there is no mention of Jodha and Akbar's marriage in the *Akbarnama*, the official chronicle of Akbar's reign.advertisement"It is said that Jodha and Akbar got married, and a film was also made on this story. History books say the same thing, but it is a lie... There was a king named Bharmal, and he got the daughter of a maid married to Akbar," Bagade claimed.
Akbar married the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amer (modern-day Jaipur) in 1562. Her birth name is not definitively known in historical records, though some sources suggest names like Harkha Bai or Harkhan Champavati. Many historians have recorded this union as a political alliance between the Mughals and the Rajputs that helped strengthen the Mughal Empire by securing the loyalty of powerful Indian kings.However, the governor countered this narrative, saying, "The British changed the history of our heroes. They did not write it properly, and their version of history was initially accepted. Later, some Indians wrote history, but it was still influenced by the British".advertisementHe also contested the historical claim that Rajput ruler Maharana Pratap wrote a treaty letter to Akbar, calling it completely misleading. "Maharana Pratap never compromised his self-respect. In history, more is taught about Akbar and less about Maharana Pratap," he claimed.After the marriage, Jodha Bai was given the title Mariyam-uz-Zamani, which means 'Mary of the Age'. She later became the mother of Jahangir, Akbar's successor, making her one of the most influential women in Mughal history.However, some historians argue that the name 'Jodha Bai' is a later misnomer, possibly confused with Jahangir's Rajput wife, who was from Jodhpur.According to the Rajasthan governor, the situation is now improving with attempts to rectify what he called "inaccuracies". He pointed out that under the new National Education Policy, efforts are being made to prepare the new generation for future challenges while "preserving our culture and glorious history".Trending Reel
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
11 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
State to seek DP workaround for redevelopment of Arthur Road Jail
MUMBAI: The plan to redevelop Arthur Road jail, Mumbai's main prison, has inched forward, with the state deciding to urge the civic administration to ease a provision that would force it to surrender a sizable portion of its property. Minister of state for home Yogesh Kadam told officials of his department and the jails department of the city police on Thursday to prepare a plan for a new ground-plus-four storey prison that would accommodate 5,000 prisoners. The present British-era jail has a capacity for 800 inmates although it houses as many as 3,500. The challenge to building a new structure comes from a provision in the city's Development Plan (DP), which mandates that the jail give up a significant portion of its property when it redevelops the prison. The land thus surrendered would add 15 metres to the width of the road outside, converting it into a 35-metre-wide stretch. The portion in question currently houses the jail's staff quarters. 'The government is working on plans to redevelop Arthur Road Jail as well as Byculla Jail, which is for women. For the Arthur Road Jail redevelopment, I have directed officials to submit a fresh proposal with a request for concessions from the provisions in the DP, to construct a ground-plus-four storey structure. We will request the BMC commissioner for the concession,' said Kadam. He has directed officials from the home department and prisons department to visit the Singapore jail before preparing the plan. He has also asked officials to work on plot reservations on 22 acres of land in Mankhurd for the construction of a new jail. A home department official said the new Arthur Road Jail would be built in phases and four temporary barracks would be constructed inside the premises, to accommodate the inmates. Kadam also said the new jail would have three courtrooms. This would save time and money as inmates would not have to be transported for court hearings outside. It would also ease the pressure to provide security to the inmates while transporting them. 'During the trial of Ajmal Kasab, who had led the attack on Mumbai in 2008, a court was set up inside the Arthur Road Jail. Adding two more courtrooms would ease the pressure on the police to provide security and other arrangements to inmates for travel to court,' said Kadam. .
Indian Express
14 minutes ago
- Indian Express
For a $5 trillion economy, India must embrace cutting-edge tech
The Indian economy is on the threshold of crossing another milestone and becoming the fourth-largest in the world. It is a commendable achievement for a country that began its journey as an independent nation in 1947 with a meagre $33-billion economy. Decades of British exploitation left it significantly weakened and poor. The Jawaharlal Nehru government's Soviet-style central planning, while promoting heavy industries and the public sector, led to low economic growth of 3-4 per cent, pejoratively described as the 'Hindu rate of growth'. In 40 years, it could only reach the $266 billion mark. The first major leap came in 1991 when the Narasimha Rao government introduced economic liberalisation and unleashed the potential of Indian entrepreneurs. The opportunity offered by the digital revolution with the introduction of the internet was quickly seized by some of India's brightest tech entrepreneurs. The Indian economy grew manifold in the next two decades on the strength of its services economy, which contributed 60 per cent of the nation's GDP. The economy crossed $2 trillion by the time the Narendra Modi government came to power. The last 10 years have seen the Modi government giving greater emphasis to faster economic growth through programmes like Stand-Up India, Start-Up India and Make in India. The results are there to see. IMF data from May has projected that the Indian economy will overtake Japan this year, reaching the $4.19 trillion mark. Japan was once a $5.8 trillion economy but has shrunk to $ 4.18 trillion due to stagnation and slow growth rates since the 1990s. As India demonstrated promising growth, naysayers rushed forward to raise the hollow bogey of per capita income. Per capita income is determined by factors like the size of the population. India is the world's most populous country. As a result, whatever may be the size of GDP, its per capita figures are bound to remain low. No country's growth can be measured on the criterion of per capita income alone. Although the US is the world's largest economy with a $28 trillion GDP, it ranks seventh in per capita. China, the second-largest economy with $18 trillion, ranks 69. The per capita argument is worthless because even if India becomes the world's largest economy with $30 trillion, it will still be ranked 55th in terms of per capita. The only merit of this argument is that the country should be able to provide better living standards to all its citizens. In democracies, the fruits of economic growth percolate to all sections of society. This is reflected in the consumption patterns. Surveys indicate that the monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) has increased in India by more than 2.5 times in the last 10 years. Interestingly, most of this expenditure was on travel, health and education, indicating healthy growth parameters. Tourism has seen remarkable growth in the last 10 years. China still occupies the first rank in the number of domestic and international travellers. India lagged in this sector for decades due to a lack of disposable income and tourism infrastructure. But today, with the incomes of the middle class growing substantially, Indians have started travelling more. Data indicates about 2.5 billion domestic tourist visits last year. Figures for 2024 indicate that almost 29 million Indians travelled abroad marking a 30 per cent growth. All this indicates healthy economic growth, which has led to the near eradication of baseline poverty and the creation of a strong middle class with disposable income. The Modi government aspires to take the economy to further heights with targets ranging from $ 5 trillion in 2027 to $10 trillion in 2035. The current impressive growth is a result of corrective measures taken by the government. It removed parallel economy, allowed proper distribution of wealth and encouraged greater consumption. But the path from here needs to be calibrated carefully. Economies grow on the strength not just of consumption but also trade and technology. Quality, quantity and speed are the main determining factors. India and China were leading economies until the middle of the 18th century. But when the industrial revolution occurred first in England and later in America, those two countries surged ahead and became leading economic powers by the dawn of the 20th century. When automation and digitisation progressed in the last decades of the last century, China moved ahead of the curve, emerging as the second-largest economy by 2008. We are now in the post-manufacturing and post-digital era. Growth in frontier technologies will determine a country's economic future. A country of India's size and capability cannot just think perpetually in terms of catching up with the developed West and the rest. It has to, instead, think in terms of moving ahead of the curve. We missed the first two industrial revolutions as we were a slave nation at that time. We benefitted partially from the third, digital revolution of the 1980s and '90s and became a leader in sectors like IT services. But the Fourth Industrial Revolution, led by Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum technologies, robotics, space, defence, crypto and bio-engineering calls for new thinking and new priorities. The impressive growth of the Indian economy in the last decade was largely due to the unleashing of its basic potential. The trajectory from here should be more strategic, with greater emphasis on deep-tech R&D, an area in which we lag. It is important to create a climate of hassle-free access to investments in these areas. Only then can India aspire to achieve its goal of becoming a $10 trillion economy in the next 10 years. The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
The Train to Kashmir
Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off two specially designed Vande Bharat trains between Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra and Srinagar on Friday. The inauguration of a direct rail link to the Valley is a historic milestone that is likely to have a far-reaching impact on the development, trade, and tourism of Kashmir, and its closer all-round integration with the rest of the country. A very long journey The first railway line in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was built by the British in 1897 over a distance of 40-45 km between Jammu and Sialkot in the plains. In 1902 and 1905, a railway line was proposed between Rawalpindi and Srinagar along the course of the Jhelum, which would have connected the Kashmir Valley with the railway network of undivided India. But Maharaja Pratap Singh of Jammu and Kashmir was in favour of a Jammu-Srinagar line via Reasi, and neither project progressed. After Partition, Sialkot went to Pakistan, and Jammu was disconnected from the rail network of India. Until the inauguration of the Pathankot-Jammu line in 1975, the railway station nearest to Jammu and Kashmir was Pathankot in Punjab. In 1983, work began on a railway line between Jammu and Udhampur. This 53-km line was supposed to be completed in five years, but ultimately took 21 years. With work still underway, the central government announced, in 1994, the extension of this line from Udhampur to Srinagar, and onward to Baramulla. This was the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) Project, which was approved in March 1995 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore. In 2002, the USBRL was declared a national project, and sections of the line became operational over the years that followed. The USBRL is finally complete now —272 km of tracks built at a cost of Rs 43,780 crore, passing through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges, bringing Katra and Srinagar within 3 hours of each other. An engineering feat The Himalayas are young, and the geologically unstable Shivalik Hills and Pir Panjal mountains lie in the seismically most active Zones IV and V. The terrain is difficult and sees heavy snow in winter, and presented serious challenges in the construction of bridges and tunnels. Among the several firsts of this remarkable achievement of railway engineering are the world's highest railway arch bridge, its arch rising 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab in Reasi district; the first cable-stayed bridge of the Railways on the Anji Khad, also in Reasi district; and the country's longest transport tunnel, 12.77 km long, in Ramban district. Development benefits Two Vande Bharat trains in each direction will cover the distance between Katra and Srinagar in about three hours, halving the time taken by the road journey. The trains will run even in deep winter, providing round-the-year all-weather connectivity to the Valley. The train will be extended soon to Jammu Tawi, which will make it possible to roll into Srinagar directly from almost anywhere in the country. The potential of the train in revolutionising tourism in Jammu and Kashmir has been repeatedly stressed. Over time, the USBRL is expected to have a major impact on the economy of the Union Territory, facilitating hassle-free transport of goods such as apples, dry fruits, pashmina shawls, handicrafts etc., to other parts of the country in the shortest possible time and at lower costs. The cost of transporting items of daily use to the Valley from elsewhere in the country is also expected to go down significantly.
