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Looped in History

Exploring India’s history — the stories, the people, the moments that shaped a civilization.

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Everyone knows Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth. Far fewer people know who first proved it. This is the story of Radhanath Sikdar, the Bengali mathematician who calculated the height of Peak XV in 1852 and established that it was the highest mountain in the world. Sikdar was the Chief Computer of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, the vast British project that mapped the subcontinent using triangulation. His figure came out to 29,000 feet. His superior, Andrew Scott Waugh, added two feet so the number would not look like a rounded guess, and the official height was announced as 29,002 feet in 1856. The mountain was named after George Everest, a former Surveyor General who never saw it and who objected to having his name attached to a peak that could not be written or pronounced easily in local languages. The British admired Sikdar and resented him in almost equal measure. George Everest wrote that there were few in India, whether European or native, who could compete with him, and that even in Europe his mathematical attainments would rank very high. Yet in 1843 Sikdar was fined 200 rupees for protesting when the magistrate Henry Vansittart forced survey workers to serve as his coolies. Years later his name was quietly dropped from the preface of the Survey Manual he had helped write, an act one British paper of the day called robbery of the dead. CHAPTERS 0:00 The mystery behind Everest's name 0:58 The mathematician who claimed the tallest mountain 1:20 Why Britain wanted to measure India 2:03 How triangulation actually worked 2:59 The "computers" and Peak XV 3:20 Correcting for the Earth's curvature and refraction 4:14 29,000 feet and the two feet that were added 4:35 How the mountain got the name Everest 4:57 Radhanath Sikdar the rebel 5:24 Falling out with the establishment 6:09 The confrontation with Vansittart 6:32 Closing thoughts SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Scroll.in, "The story of how Mount Everest was measured and got its name": https://scroll.in/article/969937/the-story-of-how-mount-everest-was-measured-and-got-its-name Bhavana (mathematics magazine), "Scaling the Everest," a detailed account of Sikdar's technical contributions: https://bhavana.org.in/scaling-the-everest/ Empire Diaries, "Radhanath Sikdar and Mount Everest: A Himalayan Mystery," on the missing 1852 letter and the Vansittart case: https://empirediaries.com/2024/05/17/radhanath-sikdar/ Radhanath Sikdar, Wikipedia, for the biographical record and the 29,002-foot figure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radhanath_Sikdar The Statesman, "The passionate scientist with a rebellious mind": https://www.thestatesman.com/opinion/the-passionate-scientist-with-a-rebellious-mind-1503348456.html Ashish Lahiri, Radhanath Sikdar and Colonial Science: An Indian Surveys an Uncharted Terrain, the standard scholarly biography. A dissenting view, The Wire Science, "Did Radhanath Sikdar Measure the Height of Mount Everest First?", which argues the surviving records complicate the popular story: https://science.thewire.in/society/history/radhanath-sikdar-measure-height-mount-everest-first/ If you enjoy videos on Indian history, mythology, and Buddhism, subscribe to Looped in History for a new story every week. #IndianHistory #MountEverest #RadhanathSikdar #GreatTrigonometricalSurvey #History
Why Mount Everest Should Be Named After This Indian Mathematician
In July 2026, Hockey India replaced the team's blue jersey with saffron, and the backlash was immediate. Former captains called it a break with a legacy that runs back to 1928. But where did that blue actually come from? The answer has less to do with the Indian flag than most people assume. India's teams were already wearing blue at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, and the reason traces back to British elite sporting tradition rather than to anything in the tricolour. The flag explanation came later. This video covers when Indian teams first wore blue, why the colour survived independence, and whether Hockey India's technical argument about blue turf actually holds up. 00:00 The saffron controversy 00:52 1928 and the Oxbridge blue 01:29 Nehru and the sanctity of the flag 02:03 Picking a colour from the tricolour 02:38 Why the shade kept changing 03:18 Does the turf argument hold up? Sources and further reading: Hockey India's decision and response — https://www.india.com/sports/india-hockey-team-change-iconic-blue-jersey-to-saffron-colour-for-world-cup-2026-hi-defend-move-8488211/ The federation's technical reasoning — https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/why-india-hockey-team-will-wear-saffron-instead-of-blue-jersey-at-fih-world-cup-2026-hockey-india-explains-enn26073003684 Gupta and Sen, "Evolution of Colors in Indian Sport Jerseys" (NIFT) — https://static.fibre2fashion.com/articleresources/PdfFiles/69/6833.pdf Looped in History covers Indian history, mythology, and Buddhism. Subscribe for weekly videos. #IndianHockey #HockeyIndia #IndianHistory #MenInBlue #SportsHistory
The Real Reason India's Teams Wear Blue
Ancient India had flying machines. That is the claim, and people quote three things to prove it: a verse from the Ramayana, a text they trace to the Rigveda, and detailed aircraft blueprints with measurements and mechanisms. This video takes all three in turn and asks a simple question. Does any of it hold up? We look at what the Pushpaka Vimana actually does in the Ramayana, where the Vaimanika Shastra really comes from and who wrote it, and whether the Sundara Vimana in its own blueprints could ever leave the ground. The answer runs through basic physics: wings, lift, Newton's third law, and a claimed speed of 8000 miles per hour. Then we turn to what ancient India genuinely achieved, from the geometry of fire altars to Madhava's early calculus to Panini's grammar, and why the real record is more impressive than the myth. Source: H.S. Mukunda et al., "A Critical Study of the Work Vymanika Shastra," Scientific Opinion, 1974. https://www.hsmukunda.in/files/journal_other_papers/1974_hsm_etc_A%20Critical%20Study%20of%20the%20Work%20Vaimanika%20Shastra.pdf Chapters 00:00 The claim 00:53 The Ramayana verse 02:09 The text no one can find 03:14 The blueprints 03:37 Four reasons it cannot fly 05:16 What India actually achieved
Ancient India’s Texts Claim Real Flying Aircraft. Here’s What The Physics Says.
In 1264, the head priest of the Somnath temple granted a Persian merchant land to build a mosque, and he had it carved in stone. For a thousand years the Somnath temple has been told as the great wound of Hindu-Muslim history. Mahmud of Ghazni sacked it in 1025. Politicians and novelists still cite it as proof of permanent religious war. This video takes that story apart using the inscriptions that were there the whole time. Mahmud did break Somnath. His reasons were money and politics. Faith had little to do with it. He needed to pay an army of Turkish mercenaries, and Somnath was one of the richest temples in India. He also wanted recognition from the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad while it competed with the Fatimids of Egypt. Sacking a famous temple bought him both. The claim that he wiped Somnath off the map is also wrong. A twelfth-century inscription shows the temple still standing, hurt mostly by mismanaged funds. The image of total destruction came from Ghazni's own publicists. His court poet Farrukhi Sistani inflated the raid into a holy triumph, and later writers repeated it. The version most people know is younger than all of that. In 1842, after a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan, Governor-General Lord Ellenborough issued the Proclamation of the Gates. He claimed to return Somnath's original sandalwood gates and cast himself as the avenger of a Hindu insult. The gates were fakes. The historian James Fergusson examined them and said so, and scholars have agreed ever since. The proclamation did its real work anyway. It planted the idea of an eternal Hindu-Muslim feud into the official record. The documents tell a different story. Fifteenth-century inscriptions describe Somnath as a thriving port. Marco Polo passed along the coast in the thirteenth century and described a busy, mixed trading world. And in 1264, a Persian ship-owner named Nuruddin Firuz asked the temple town for permission to build a mosque. The council granted it and gave land for the purpose. The agreement was recorded in both Sanskrit and Arabic and witnessed by the town's leading merchants. All of it happened long after Mahmud of Ghazni supposedly destroyed everything. The real history of Somnath is a port city where Hindus and Muslims traded, negotiated, and shared space, and where a temple council once helped build a mosque. CHAPTERS 0:00 The inscription no one taught you 0:10 The story we were told 0:38 Why Mahmud of Ghazni really attacked 1:38 The myth of total destruction 2:32 How the British invented the feud 3:23 What the records actually say 3:58 The 1264 mosque grant 5:19 The real history of Somnath SOURCES AND FURTHER READING Romila Thapar, Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History (2004). The Somnath-Veraval bilingual inscription of 1264, recording Nuruddin Firuz and the grant of land for a mosque. On the sandalwood gates, see the record of Lord Ellenborough's Proclamation of the Gates (1842) and James Fergusson's later assessment. Looped in History covers Indian history, mythology, and Buddhism with an eye for what the sources actually say. Subscribe if that is your kind of thing. #Somnath #IndianHistory #MahmudOfGhazni #History #Hindu #Muslim
Don’t Believe The BJP's Lies About Somnath. This Temple Inscription Tells The Truth.
India kept the format after independence. The single high-stakes exam became the gate to a career through the UPSC, and the same model now shapes JEE and NEET. The coaching hubs and the leak economy are what happens when a country funnels its children through one gate. Sources: Charter Act 1853 and the 1854 Macaulay Committee report on the Indian Civil Service. Cornell et al., “Colonial origins of modern bureaucracy? India and the professionalization of the British civil service,” Governance (2023). #IndianHistory #NEET2026 #BritishRaj #ColonialIndia #UPSC #LoopedInHistory
How Britain Trapped Indian Students in One Exam #NEET #History
In February 1946, a hunger strike over unpalatable food on the HMIS Talwar escalated into a full-scale rebellion involving over 20,000 sailors across 78 ships and 20 shore establishments. But to dismiss this uprising as a mere grievance over rations misses the profound psychological shift happening within the Indian armed forces at the dawn of independence. In this video, we examine the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) mutiny not through generalized hagiography, but through the structural data and the human breaking points that fueled it. We explore how returning WWII veterans—having fought for an empire that treated them as second-class citizens—reached a critical juncture of defiance against systemic racial discrimination and unequal pay. By tracking the rapid spread of the mutiny from Bombay to Karachi, Calcutta, and Madras, we break down how these five days in February fundamentally shattered the illusion of British imperial control over its armed forces. 📚 Featured Source: A cornerstone for understanding the psychological reality and lived experience of this uprising is B.C. Dutt’s Mutiny of the Innocents. As a former signaller and a central architect of the strike, Dutt’s first-hand account strips away the mythology to reveal the genuine motivations, anxieties, and courage of the young men who took over the ships. Highly recommended reading for anyone looking to dig deeper into the human element of this historical turning point. Mutiny of the Innocents by B.C. Dutt If you found this breakdown valuable, please like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments. What historical event should we analyze next? #IndianHistory #NavalMutiny1946 #RoyalIndianNavy #ModernIndianHistory #BritishEmpire #IndianIndependence
The Real Reason The British Left India
Did you know India actually qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil but decided not to go? 🤔 The legendary story we always hear is that FIFA banned India because the players refused to wear boots and wanted to play barefoot. But that is only a tiny slice of the pie! The Real Truth: While the "barefoot rule" played a minor role, the real reasons India withdrew were much more practical: * Financial Constraints: In 1950, traveling all the way from India to Brazil was incredibly expensive, and funding was scarce. * The Olympic Priority: At the time, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) viewed the Olympics as the absolute pinnacle of international football—not the newly revived World Cup. * Lack of Preparation: The team simply didn't have enough time to organize, train, and select a proper squad for the long journey. Do you think India would have made a splash in 1950 if they had made the trip? Let us know in the comments! 👇 If you loved this quick football history lesson, hit that Like button and Subscribe for more! 🔔 #IndianFootball #FIFAWorldCup #FootballHistory #1950WorldCup #IndianSports #DidYouKnow #Shorts #FootballMyths #SoccerHistory
India Qualified For The 1950 Football World Cup. This is Why They Didn’t Go.
India hit its 20% ethanol blending target five years early, and drivers are furious about mileage, engine damage, and water. Before you decide whether the government got this right, look at what happened the last time a state forced a giant agricultural mandate on Punjab without asking the people who lived there. In 1885 the British began the Punjab canal colonies. Using James Scott's Seeing Like a State, this video traces the four moves that turned a revenue triumph into salt-white fields, a malaria catastrophe, and an agitation that made the Viceroy back down. Chapters 0:00 India hits 20% ethanol, and the 1885 warning 0:42 Problem one: the mileage drop and the chemistry 1:20 Problem two: sugarcane, water, and the Gadkari clip 1:45 Problem three: why ethanol eats older engines 2:10 The British experiment of 1885, and the money behind it 2:40 Seeing Like a State: the four moves 3:30 Who got the land 4:20 Peasants turned into tenants 5:00 Green fields turning white: waterlogging and salt 5:25 The 1908 malaria catastrophe 6:00 Ajit Singh and the pushback 6:20 The case today: courts, protests, and Brazil's alternative 7:20 Why demanding consultation is the most Indian thing you can do Correction (pin this): In the video I say Ajit Singh's agitation came too late. That is wrong, and the truth is better. The 1907 Pagri Sambhal Jatta movement he led forced Viceroy Lord Minto to veto the Colonisation Bill on 26 May 1907. The farmers won. I also say the Arain community received 36% of colony land. That figure is unverified and the land in fact went mainly to Jat grantees, so please disregard the number. Sources Academic anchor: Imran Ali, The Punjab Under Imperialism, 1885–1947 (Princeton University Press, 1988). The book is the standard scholarly account of the canal colonies. Print. The underlying 1979 thesis, "The Punjab Canal Colonies, 1885–1940," is catalogued here: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Punjab-Canal-Colonies,-1885-1940-Ali/773b1abcf11542527197bd73ec4ac50acd6733dd Framework: James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Yale University Press, 1998). Print; commonly available via the Internet Archive lending library at archive.org. The 1907 veto and the Pagri Sambhal Jatta agitation: "A Protest, a Veto and a Committee," The Wire — https://m.thewire.in/article/economy/a-protest-a-veto-and-a-committee-the-quelling-of-another-farmers-protest ; and "1907 Punjab unrest," Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1907_Punjab_unrest The 1908 malaria epidemic and the roughly 250,000 excess deaths, attributed to S.R. Christophers' enquiry: PMC article summarizing his findings — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350549/ . Primary report: S.R. Christophers, Malaria in the Punjab (Scientific Memoirs by Officers of the Medical and Sanitary Departments of the Government of India, 1911). Print; likely available on archive.org, link unverified. The waterlogging, salinity, and malaria link: Elizabeth Whitcombe, "The Environmental Costs of Irrigation in British India: Waterlogging, Salinity, Malaria," in David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha, eds., Nature, Culture, Imperialism (Oxford University Press, 1995). Print.
Why History Says The E20 Ethanol Mandate Will Fail
On 31 July 1948, India faced France at Cricklefield Stadium in the London Olympics. Eight of the eleven players wore no boots. The team had boots. They chose to go barefoot out of habit. India lost 2-1. René Courbin scored first for France. Sarangapani Raman equalised in the 70th minute for independent India’s first international goal. France won it in the 89th minute. After the match a reporter asked captain Talimeren Ao why his side played barefoot. He said, “We play football in India, whereas you play bootball.” The line ran in London’s newspapers the next morning.
India Nearly Beat France In Football - Barefoot! Their Captain’ Response Went Viral #football
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