Category Archives: Historical Links / Pre-Independence

This Lucknow Woman Singlehandedly Took down 30 British Soldiers in 1857!

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Hiding in a tree, she carefully took aim at the approaching British

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British rule saw some of the most ferocious battles fought across the nation. The soldiers were courageous and fought tooth and nail. While the revolt did not succeed, it went down in history as a righteous struggle.

Amongst all the illustrious freedom fighters, Uda Devi’s name stands out for leading one of the fiercest battles in Lucknow against the British.

Uda Devi hid in a tree, and took out more than 30 British soldiers without batting an eyelid.Representative image only. Image Courtesy:Wikimedia Commons

Born to a Dalit family in Awadh, Uttar Pradesh, Uda Devi at an early age, recognised the dissent the local people showed against the British Raj. She decided to contribute to the cause, and approached Begum Hazrat Mahal to seek help, in order to prepare for the battle against the British.

Begum Hazrat Mahal was kind and helped Uda Devi form a woman’s battalion, which the latter would lead herself. Thus, when Awadh was attacked by the British, Uda Devi and her husband became a vital part of the armed resistance.

The Battle in Sikandar Bagh

The Sikandar Bagh gate, where the battle took place.Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

In autumn 1857, north India was in a state of practical anarchy. A general revolt against the growing authority of the British East India Company consumed the cities of Delhi, Jhansi and Kanpur.

In Lucknow, a small British garrison clung stubbornly to life at the Residency (a collection of buildings) on the banks of the Gomti River.

Surrounded by rebels and bereft of adequate supplies, the small British contingent teetered on the edge of annihilation throughout the summer of 1857.

In November, General Colin Campbell broke through the enemy lines and managed to save the trapped garrison. This was the ‘Second Relief of Lucknow’, during which Campbell’s 93rd Highland Regiment advanced along the Southern bank of the Gomti, proceeding toward the Palace of Sikandar Bagh.

Here, the rebels fought desperately, after fortifying their position. A pitched battle ensued, leaving over 2000 rebels and soldiers dead, after a fierce hand-to-hand combat. It was during the battle that Uda Devi’s husband was killed. Enraged, the brave soldier decided to avenge his death.

On seeing the British army approach Sikandar Bagh, she climbed up a banyan tree, disguised as a man, and took aimed, killing 32 British soldiers.

Once the dust had settled, an officer noticed that many of the British casualties had bullet wounds that indicated a steep, downward trajectory.

The needle of suspicion naturally pointed to a sniper, who could be hidden in the nearby trees. British officers fired at a nearby pipal tree, and a rebel fell out of the tree, dead, her body riddled with bullet wounds. Upon investigation, it was found that the rebel was, in fact, Uda Devi.

The British were shocked when they realised the soldier was a woman. It is said that even British officers like Campbell bowed their heads over her dead body, in recognition of her bravery.

Uda Devi is indeed an inspiration, especially to women from non-dominant castes. Befittingly, on November 16th each year, the members of her Pasi caste gather at the site of her fall and celebrate her as a brave rebel, who defied all odds to take British lives, for a cause. It has been over a century since she was martyred, yet the memory of her sacrifice is kept alive by her community, which celebrates her unwavering and courageous spirit.

Uda Devi is also one of the inspirations behind an all-women battalion, of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary. The government is keen on recruiting women from OBC and Dalit communities in these battalions.

The women PAC battalions will help the government in crowd control, and during agitations where the participants are mostly women. The government is currently identifying land in Uttar Pradesh, where centres for training these women cops can be built.

The raising of women PAC battalions is an excellent step towards empowering the women from the weaker sections of society, and it is only fitting, that one of the units, derives its name from a ‘Dalit Veerangana’ like Uda Devi.

source: http://www.thebetterindia.com / The Better India / Home> Inspiration> Women / by Rayomand Engineer / March 01st, 2018

200th Christmas for Faizabad church

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion
A German music band celebrates Christmas with children

Faizabad

Built 200 years ago, Wesleyan Chapel, a fine specimen of British Architecture, for the British soldiers posted in Faizabad Cantonment, Church of North India is all decked up to celebrate Christmas.

Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1816, merged with Diocese of Lucknow in 1970 and then came to be known as Church of North India.

Talking to TOI, Rev Kaushalendra Solomon, pastor of the church said that special prayer service would be held at midnight on Christmas and then in the morning. Different religious activities will continue in the church till December 31and a special watch night service would be held on New Year eve.

The church committee led by secretary Chitij Charles has ensured special decoration with flowers and lighting as the Church has completed 200 years. Rev Solomon said that they get special cakes baked for Christmas celebrations at a local bakery.

“Ghulam Mohammad, a local scholar, said that Maulvi Ahmad Ullah Shah, who was leading the 1857 mutiny against Britishers from Faizabad, had instructed his soldiers not to damage the Wesleyan Chapel because it was a place of worship.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Neww> City News> Lucknow News / by Arshad Afzal Khan / TNN / December 25th, 2017

The story of the Englishman who stayed back as a judge in India (and what it tells us about Nehru)

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Having come to India in the service of an imperial power, William Broome died an Indian.

Justice William Broome is not a well-known figure today. But he lived an exciting and inspiring life.

He came to India as an imperial official, but defied British prejudices by marrying an Indian woman and devoting his life to India. He received Indian citizenship with the assistance of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and heard the early stages of Raj Narain’s challenge to Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election victory. He was unusual even among those British officials who stayed on in India after Independence. But his life still contains important lessons about what it can mean to be Indian.

William Broome was born in 1910 in London. He was appointed to the Indian Civil Service in 1932. He served in what was then the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh). In 1937, he married Swaroop Kumari Gour, the daughter of the lawyer, politician and academic Sir Hari Singh Gour.

This marriage was remarkable. Even though Broome served in the Indian Civil Service during a period of Indianisation, British rule in India was still characterised by racial hierarchies and segregation. The maintenance of colonial control involved the preservation of racial divides, aloofness and detachment from the Indian populace. Even India’s Anglo-Indian population was stigmatised and excluded by the English-born.

In marrying Gour, Broome defied these prejudices. He raised his children as Hindus (Broome was an atheist), learned numerous Indian languages and developed a strong interest in Indian culture.

Being Indian
Broome was appointed as a district and sessions judge in 1941. His independence in that role was legendary. When the chief secretary of the United Provinces declared that too many detainees under the Defence of India Rules were receiving bail, Broome responded by threatening the chief secretary with contempt of court.

Unlike most British judges and civil servants, Broome stayed in India as a judge after Independence. By 1958, Nehru was able to write of Broome that “I have seldom known any Englishman who has so Indianized himself in various ways as he has”, and that “he is as much as Indian as anybody can be who is not born in India and indeed probably more so than many people born in India”.

In that year, with Nehru’s assistance, Broome renounced his British citizenship and became an Indian citizen. He was appointed to the Allahabad High Court, where he served until his retirement in 1972. His judgments in this role demonstrated a strong concern for civil liberties, even going further than the Supreme Court of that time.

One of Broome’s final cases as a judge was to hear the early stages of Raj Narain’s challenge to Indira Gandhi’s 1971 election from Rae Bareli – the challenge that ultimately led to the Emergency. Broome had known Nehru and had once enjoyed a friendly relationship with Indira – he and his wife were even invited to Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi’s wedding reception. But he nonetheless made important procedural rulings in Narain’s favour. (Although Broome’s friendship with Indira Gandhi seems to have ended after this case, it is striking that no effort was made to delegitimise his decisions by referring to his foreign birth.)

Broome died in Bengaluru in 1988. Having come to India in the service of an imperial power, he died an Indian.

A noteworthy life
Broome was unusual. Although thousands of British citizens remained in India after Independence, few British officials or judges did so. Of those officials, Broome was one of the few who devoted himself to India not just as an administrator, judge or scholar but as a citizen. The fact that he embraced India until his death, and was embraced in turn, must be weighed against the departure of so many other British citizens, whether at Independence or upon their retirement, and the alienation of many Anglo-Indians from the new independent nation. His life was not necessarily representative of how other people of British descent in India felt or acted after Independence.

But Broome’s life is still noteworthy.

He was retained as a judge by the independent Indian government partially through pragmatism: despite the long struggle for independence, free India kept many of the institutions and officials that had governed (even subjugated) colonial India. But his life also reflected important, idealistic aspects of the new Indian state.

Broome came to India as an official of an occupying colonial power. He served as an official and a judge in a regime that imposed various rigid classifications: between races, between religions, between governors and governed. Broome rejected these classifications. After achieving Independence, the government of India did so too.

In the current age of escalating intolerance and xenophobic nationalism, Jawaharlal Nehru’s idea of India remains a powerful alternative to those who would make the nation great again by slicing away undesired pieces of it. Nehru refused, as Ramachandra Guha puts it, to “reduce India or ‘Indianness’ to a dominant religious or linguistic ethos”. Nehru himself described Indian unity as encompassing “the widest tolerance of belief and custom…every variety acknowledged and even encouraged”. Nehru’s idea of India was, as he put it, a nation of “enduring capacity to absorb other people and their cultural accomplishments”, drawing upon and enriched by ideas and faiths and traditions from around the world. Even though this vision failed to attract or keep many, even most, of the British people who had lived and worked in India under the colonial regime, it did allow Broome to be accepted as an Indian.

The fact that Broome was seemingly one of a kind demonstrates that this vision has not been completely honoured in practice. Broome was married to the daughter of a very distinguished Indian, held important offices and was seen to have “Indianized himself”. He may have been easier to accept as an Indian than someone without these characteristics, thus demonstrating limits to Indian tolerance.

There is hence a gulf between Nehru’s vision of India and how that dream has been fulfilled. But the vision is still important and still inspiring today.

Douglas McDonald-Norman is a researcher in Indian law, politics and history and a contributor to Law and Other Things.

For more information on William Broome, see Douglas’s article for the Indian Historical Review, “Becoming Indian: William Broome and Colonial Continuity in Post-Independence India”.

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Magazine> History Revisited / by Douglas McDonald-Norman / December 26th, 2017

Stoke Row’s Maharajah’s Well undergoes £25K revamp

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Stoke Row’s Maharajah’s Well undergoes £25K revamp / ALAN MURRAY-RUST

A Victorian well that was funded by an Indian maharajah has undergone £25,000 refurbishment works.

Maharajah’s Well was gifted to the residents of Stoke Row, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, by the Maharajah of Benares in the mid-1800s.

He was moved by stories of water shortage in the area told to him by local landowner Edward Reade who worked in India for many years sinking wells.

Revamp work has included refurbishing the well’s gilded elephant statue.

The restoration of the 368ft-deep (112m) well – which began in April – also involved repainting the well and its canopy using Victorian methods, the Maharajah’s Well Trust charity, which has funded the work, said.

Chair of the trust, Catherine Hale, described it as a “unique structure”.

“It’s also an amazing story of this connection between a landowner in the Chilterns and a maharaja.”

Maharajah’s Well was officially opened on 24 May 1864 and cost £353.

source: http://www.bbc.om / BBC News / Home> News> England> Oxford / December 16th, 2017

Armenian X’mas link

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This Christmas, let’s rewind to the times when the cross and the crescent met in the Capital

Christmas is much the same everywhere but the medieval Armenian one was different. Even the Cross (that proclaims Christ’s crucifixion) had its own peculiar shape, hardly seen in Catholic and Protestant churches, except in old cemeteries, like the one in Agra which was once a Mughal orchard gifted to an Armenian lady by Akbar in the 17th Century. In Armenian celebrations, cakes were there, of course, but the emphasis was on animal sacrifices. The cakes and sweet breads were embellished with raisins (kishmish). No wonder non-Christians started calling Christmas “Kishmish”.

The visit of the former Armenian President, Levon Der Petrossian during Indira Gandhi’s time was a reminder of the age-old ties between India and Armenia, two countries where the Aryan influence predominated. The visit of Vice-President Hamid Ansari earlier this year was a follow-up to the one by Mrs Gandhi’s to Yeravan.

Armenia is an ancient country which has been regarded as “the doorway between East and West.” Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark rested after the Deluge, was in the present Turkish part of Armenia and it was there that those who were saved from the great flood along with the patriarch settled down to create a new world. It was, therefore, natural for Christianity to take root there in its initial days. It is worth mentioning, however, that the old beliefs of the Armenians were incorporated into the Church for quite a long time. Animals were sacrificed in the church porch before the celebration of the Eucharest, especially at X’mas and Easter. The Armenians had started coming to the Mughal Empire some years before the invasion of their country by Turkey. They found the hospitality that they needed and built churches in Delhi, which, however, do not exist now.

At Agra also they built a chapel and the son of a nobleman, Mirza Zulquarnain, was brought up by Akbar. He was later to become the head of the salt works at Sambar. The Mirza is known as the Father of Christianity in North India because it was during his time that the cross and the crescent met in the Mughal Capital.

Mirza Zulquarnain’s palace occupied the land where the British later built the Agra Central Prison, which in recent times has made way for the ambitious shopping project known as Sanjay Place. It was on this piece of land that a cathedral was erected by the Capuchins 200 years later. The Armenians planted olive trees, one of which still survives near Akbar’s church. The mystical cross was used as an emblem on even residential buildings. It is said that during Akbar’s time after Christmas Mass the sick members of the congregation drank of the water in which earlier a crucifix had been bathed. It was supposed to cure patients, or so the belief went. In the Martyrs’ Cemetry at Agra are the graves of many Armenians which look like Muslim graves with Persian inscriptions. One of the graves, that of the saintly Armenian merchant, Khwaja Mortiniphas is still venerated, along with that of Fr. Santus. Some say he was related to the Bishop of Tabriz and became a hermit in later life after giving all his wealth to the poor.

In Delhi, the most famous Armenian tomb is that of Sarmad Shaheed at the foot of the Jama Masjid. Kishanganj, between old Delhi and Sarai Rohila stations, also has some Armenian graves, besides those of Dutch nationals some connected to the Mughal Court like Bibi Juliana. Incidentally, the Chief Justice in Akbar’s reign was Abdul Hayee, an Armenian Christian.

Destroyed by Nadir Shah

There were two Armenian churches in Delhi, one near the slaughter house, beyond the old Sabzi Mandi, another in Sarai Rohilla; though accounts of their exact location differ. According to Sir Edward Maclagan, there were 120 catholics in Delhi during Shah Jahan’s reign in 1650. Their number went upto 300 by 1686, when Aurangzeb was on the throne. Two priests looked after them. A Catholic cemetery was also in existence from 1656. Father Desideri, who came to the city from Tibet, found the churches in ruins in 1732 (Mohd Shah’s reign). He stayed on for three years and built a new Armenian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and blessed on All Souls’ Day, Nov 2, 1723. In 1739, this church and another Armenian one were destroyed by the Persian invader, Nadir Shah during the massacre of Delhi. One of the churches was rebuilt in 1746, and blessed on Christmas Eve. Later another Armenian church came up, but both seem to have been razed in the early 19th century.

When the Armenians held X’mas celebrations, boys and girls dressed as angels greeted Akbar and later Jahangir at their church in Agra which still exists. After that the two emperors watched the Christmas play and later sent the ladies of the harem to see the crib depicting Christ’s truth in a manger. Armenian X’mas is now a nostalgic memory but when the church bells peal for midnight Mass at Christmas in the Cathedral near Akbar’s church, the Armenian spirit is revived as the local Padritolians pull the ropes of the five huge bells imported from Belgium by the Italian Capuchin fathers. This tradition dates back to Armenian times, when one of the bells broke and could be lifted with great difficulty by two elephants, who deposited it in the Mughal Kotwali till Jahangir had it repaired and restored to the old church.

Probably the most famous Armenian in Indian history was Shah Nazar Khan who cast the Zamzamah gun for the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) on the orders of Ahmed Shah Abdali and about which Kipling wrote: “Who hold Zam-Zamah, that fire-breathing dragon, hold the Punjab”. The giant on wheels, gun is now parked in front of the Lahore Museum, while Nazar Khan rests in Agra where father discovered the nearly-obliterated Persian inscription on his tomb in December 1935, almost two years before one was born. Merry Christmas!

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Miscellaenous> Othes / by R.V. Smith / December 26th, 2017

State to put fossil park on international map

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Lucknow :

The Uttar Pradesh government is working on a plan to get international recognition for the fossil park at Sonbhadra, considered to be the oldest fossil finds in the world. This work will be carried out along with the development of Kapilavastu, Kushinagar and Sharavasti, areas closely connected with Lord Buddha.

Speaking in the Vidhan Parishad on Thursday, tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said a research team has been formed and a roadmap would be chalked out to promote the fossil park internationally. Members of Samajwadi Party had demanded that the government get UNESCO recognition for the site, as it had recently done for Varanasi.

“The fossil park at Sonebhadra is older than even the Yellowstone National Park in the US. Earlier, I could not have taken action as the area came under the environment department. However, recently an MoU has been signed between the departments of environment and tourism for the development of eco-tourism. We will take up the fossil park under this MoU and soon have a plan in place to ensure international recognition for the area as a heritage zone,” she said. The roughly 25 acre-fossil park in Salkhan is believed to be more than 1,400 million years old and is located 12 km from Robertsganj, the district headquarters of Sonbhadra.

The fossils were reportedly first discovered in the 1930s but the area was designated a fossil park only in 2002. Fossils of algae and stromatolites have been discovered in the area, adjacent to the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary. A similar fossil park was discovered a few years later close to the one in Salkhan, in Badagaon village under Chopan Vikas Khand. This year, said Joshi, Rs 89.60 lakh has been sanctioned for various development work to be carried in and around the fossil park. She said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 99 crore for a project to develope tourism in areas closely linked with the rise of Buddhism, namely Kapilavastu, Kushinagar and Shravasti.

Outlining works that were already going on, Joshi said the area would be developed as acircuit that would promote tourism in the entire region.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Civic News / TNN / December 22nd, 2017

Jungle safari on vintage train in Uttar Pradesh

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Initiative to attract a large number of tourists from Nepal.

The train will run on a 15 kilometer route and will carry eco-tourists through the forest area

Lucknow:

A vintage train that stopped moving for over 30 years now will start its journey once again.

The train will soon run through the thick foliage of the lush green Sal trees in Laxmipur range of Maharajganj forest division which is famous for the Sohagi Barwa Wildlife Sanctuary that has a huge population of antelopes besides rare and endangered birds and wildlife.

The train will run on a 15 kilometer route and will carry eco-tourists through the forest area.

The initiative for this was taken by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath who wants to give a boost to tourism in eastern UP.

The railway authorities have already completed the survey of the track and found it fit for operations. The vegetation on the track, however, has to be cleared. Mr Manish Singh, divisional forest officer of the Sohagi Barwa Wildlife Sanctuary, said that while the train earlier used to run on steam engine, it will now be driven by a diesel engine between Laxmipur and Ikma. The forest official said that since the area is near Sonauli border with Nepal, it is sure to attract a large number of tourists from Nepal.

The track that runs along Taungya villages also has a parallel road alongside on which there is a heavy movement of people all day through.

The vintage train that used to run on a narrow gauge track had 56 bogies and four engines, apart from a saloon.

Incidentally, the train was started in 1922 to ferry wooden logs and its operations was stopped in 198

source: http://www.asianage.com / The Asian Age / Home> India> All India / December 10th, 2017

A Yatra to Lucknow’s lesser-known marvels

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A woman poses for a selfie during the heritage walk and (right) the poor state of the road leading to Kashishwar Mahadev temple

Lucknow :

A journey called ‘Yatra’ to lesser-known yet important landmarks of Lucknow on the city outskirts was organized on Sunday by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

The ‘Yatra’ started from Chatori Gali near Gomti Riverfront and had four stops, Kashishwar Mahadev Temple at Mohanlalganj, Shivala and Kakori Memorial at Kakori Road and Kudiya Ghat in Old City.

“The idea was to explore the monuments in Lucknow that are not much talked about. The tourism department doesn’t keep them in its itinerary despite their historical and architectural value. For instance, Kakori Memorial, it is one of the landmarks that tells so much about Lucknow’s association with the freedom struggle but it’s nowhere on the list of places to visit in Lucknow,” said Vipul Varshney, convener of INTACH’s Lucknow chapter.

She added, “Mostly when people speak about Lucknow, they talk of Imambada or Tunday Kebabi. Not even all Lucknowites know that these places exist. So, we want people to get acquainted with these monuments and give them their due importance.” The ‘Yatra’ was attended by 50 people, including 25 architecture students. Several among them visited these monuments for the first time.

“The most interesting stop of the trip was Kashishwar Mahadev Temple at Mohanlalganj. Built in 1860, it is a perfect example of Vastu Shastra. It has eight ‘Shivalayas’ and the top of the main compound has a ribbed dome on a rectangular base with inverted lotus finial and metallic pinnacle. It was fascinating to see anything so architecturally wonderful,” said Shweta Singh.

Expressing concern over the poor upkeep of monuments, Vipul said, “Despite their historical importance they are in shambles, be it Kashishwar Temple or Kakori Memorial. Despite getting lakhs of rupees for Kudiya Ghat’s beautification, river there is full of water hyacinth; even the stairs are not cleaned properly.”

“Kashishwar temple is ASI protected, but the approach is not cemented. Garbage was strewn everywhere,” said Aparna Mishra.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Vidita Chandra / TNN / December 04th, 2017

Monk who initiated Ambedkar into Buddhism dies days before 89th birthday

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Lucknow :

Buddhist monk Bhadant Galgedar Pragyanand, youngest among the seven priests who had initiated Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar into Buddhism in 1956, died here at Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University (KGMU) on Thursday morning.

Just about 18 days short of this 89th birthday, the Sri Lanka-born ascetic had been undergoing multiple age-related medical problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Head of Lucknow’s Buddh Vihar near Risaldar Park in Lal Kuan area, monk Pragyanand had come to India at the age of 13 and was visited by Ambedkar in Lucknow twice, in 1948 and 1951.

Pragyanand was only 20 when Ambedkar first met him.

Disciples of the ‘gururji’ claimed that it was after his visits to Lucknow to seek blessings from Bhadant Boddhanant and Bhadant Pragyanand that Ambedkar was inspired to embrace Buddhism.

Bhadanta Pragyanand (File Photo)

Final rites in Shrawasti after procession in city.

A procession carrying the body of Bhadant Pragyanand in an open vehicle will leave Risaldar park situated Buddh Vihar at 9am. Following the Husainganj, Burlington, Odeon cinema route, the procession will reach Ambedkar Mahsabha where the body of its founder president will be kept for 15 minutes. The procession will then reach Hazratganj situated Ambedkar statue where a halt of 30 minutes will be made for tributes to be paid, when finally at 12 noon the body will be carried to Shrawasti for last rites as per Buddhist rituals.

‘Guruji spoke little but talking about Ambedkar would always energise him’

He was brought in on November 26 after complaints of fever and chest pain but had multiple age-related medical conditions,” said Prof SN Sankhwar, chief medical superintendent, KGMU.

Pragyanand was born on December 18, 1928, and had nephews and nieces in Sri Lanka who were in regular contact with monks in Lucknow, but could not come to India on Thursday. Followers and wellwishers of the old monk, including UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, poured in at Buddh Vihar where his body was kept.

Bhikshu Pragya Saar, the oldest of Pragyanand’s disciple at Lucknow’s Buddh Vihar said, “When behenji (Mayawati) became CM for the first time in 1995, guruji asked her to go on a pilgrimage.

When she asked to which place should she make the pilgrimage to, he replied Shrawasti. And she indeed did.”He added, “It was also around 1997 that on guruji’s persuasion Behenji declared Shrawasti a district and raised its political importance to match its religious significance.”

Six disciples of the monk lived with him at the Buddh Vihar, one of whom Bhikshu Dharam Priya said, “I came under guruji’s wings in October 1999 and it was from him that I imbibed the unending energy and will to work. He had published 62 books on Buddhist teachings and had authored some of them.”

The disciples recalled, “Guruji spoke little but talking about Ambedkar would always energise him. He would tell us about the ceremony in Nagpur on October 14, 1956, where Babasaheb’s wife Savita Ambedkar was also present.” The group which had performed the ceremony was headed by Chandramani Mahasanghayak and had Bhikshu Paramshanti, Pannanand Mahathero, Bhadant Sadhatiss Mahathero, H Sangratn Mahasthavir and Bhikshu Sumedh.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Yusra Husain / TNN / December 01st, 2017

Where tradition is the spice of business

Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

If cameras had been commonly used in the early 19th century in Lucknow, the walls of this iconic shop would have been full of pictures ranging from Nawabi to British customers, claims Dheeraj Kumar Gupta, who sits at the counter at Mata Badal Pansari in Aminabad.

Set up in 1857, Madal Badal Pansari has neither lost on tradition nor customers. Known far and wide for selling hard-to-find ayurvedic medicines and other rare herbs, the shop has celebrity chefs such as Vikas Khanna and Sanjeev Kapoor as its regular clients.

“Khanna had also mentioned about our shop and spices he bought from us when he was interviewed by media during his recent visit to Lucknow,” says Dheeraj, the sixth generation of Mata Badal—the man who had set up the shop.

Dheeraj runs the 160-year-old store with his father.

Located in a lane in Aminabad—the market that sells everything from a needle to a sword—Mata Badal Pansari gets its name from the owner himself. When Mata Badal had set up the shop, the market was nothing but a huge park, says Dheeraj.

Both the Nawabs and the British were among the store’s regular customers. “Only if clicking pictures was as easy as it is today, we would have had the most interesting collage to display,” he adds.

As one walks into the store, the huge iron shutters at its entrance, high ceiling and the large storage space—it is rare to find such in a place like Aminabad—lend credence to its past.
“We get rare herbs from farmers in Darjeeling, Nepal, Goa and even abroad. We actually get ‘Multani mitti’ from Multan in Pakistan,” says Deepak.

Anyone who has ever lived in Lucknow would have heard of Mata Badal Pansari if not visited the shop.

Meetu Kumar, an HR professional settled in New Delhi, says, “Though I am from Unnao, my maternal grandmother in Lucknow would ensure that she always got henna for her hair from Mata Badal Pansari. I remember how my mother used to shop from them too for the best henna. Now, I get it whenever I land in Lucknow.”

Through all these years, the shop has not deviated from tradition. The interiors have not been changed and sales are only over the counter.

“We have customers visiting us from all parts of the country and even beyond. We have not thought of adopting online or other platforms to sell our products,” says Gupta. His younger brother, though a lawyer, makes it a point to participate in the family business too.

With its huge clientele, the shop caters to various famous personalities.

“Raj Bhawan has always bought herbs from us and so have most chief ministers. We have never tried or even thought of marketing the fact that we have sold herbs and medicines to famous people. To us, every customer is equally important,” says Gupta.

Mata Badal Pansari has never been into advertising. Its popularity and credibility have travelled far and wide mainly through word of mouth.

Swati Singh, a Lucknowite now settled in Bangalore, says she keeps a note of spices and herbs required in her kitchen in a diary but never buys them from just any store

“I have to get my spices from Mata Badal Pansari in Lucknow. Either I ask my brother to courier them to me or I buy them myself when I come to Lucknow,” she adds.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Lucknow News / TNN / August 20th, 2017