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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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In India, Ganesha is one of the most recognizable Hindu gods. But travel to Japan, and you’ll find something surprising: two elephant-headed Ganeshas embracing each other. Known as Kangiten, this unusual Japanese form of Ganesha emerged through the spread of Buddhism from India, via China, to Japan. The two figures represent a union of opposing forces, and the image became so sacred in Japanese esoteric Buddhism that it was often hidden from public view. How did an Indian god become one of Japan’s most unusual Buddhist deities? Sources: * British Museum — Kangiten (Shoten), Japanese iron sculpture: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1992-0525-115 * Museums of Genoa — Kangiten: https://www.museidigenova.it/en/kangiten * JAANUS — Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System, Kangiten: https://aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/kangiten.htm #Ganesha #Japan #IndianHistory #Kangiten #Shorts
Why Does the Japanese Ganesha Have Two Elephants?
A year before Partition, Muhammad Ali Jinnah accepted a plan to keep India united. So how did that deal fall apart? In 1946, the Cabinet Mission proposed a loose Indian union with powerful provincial groups. Jinnah’s Muslim League accepted it—but disagreements with Congress over how the arrangement would work helped unravel the agreement. A look at the failed deal before the Partition of India—and why I probably shouldn’t have brought the North-West Frontier Province into my salary negotiation. #IndianHistory #Partition #Jinnah
Jinnah Said Yes to a United India. Why Did It Fail?
Why did Jaipur experience devastating Hindu-Muslim riots while nearby Ajmer remained remarkably peaceful? The two cities are close to each other. They had similar Hindu and Muslim populations and similar caste structures. But their histories of communal violence were strikingly different. The answer may go back to British rule. Jaipur was a princely state, while Ajmer was governed directly by the British. Those two systems categorized people differently, built different institutions, and created very different relationships between Hindus, Muslims and the state. In this video, we look at how colonial rule shaped religious identity, why seemingly similar cities developed different patterns of violence, and what this history can tell us about the way governments turn identities like religion and caste into political categories. The story takes us from the princely states and colonial censuses to police forces, schools, riots—and an extraordinary act of courage during the violence of 2002. **References / Further Reading** Ajay Verghese, *The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Violence in India* (Stanford University Press, 2016). This video draws heavily on Verghese’s research comparing former princely states with areas of India that experienced direct British rule.
Why One Indian City Has Hindu Muslim Riots—and Its Neighbor Doesn't.
Lions are everywhere in Indian culture. सिंहासन — Singhasan, the word for throne — literally evokes the lion. And millions of Indians carry the name Singh. But go all the way back to the Harappan civilization and something strange happens: tigers appear again and again in its art, while clear depictions of lions are strikingly absent. So where did India’s lions come from — and how did they become such a powerful symbol? The answer may have something to do with a changing climate, changing landscapes, and an animal perfectly suited to the open country that followed. #IndianHistory #AncientIndia #HistoryShorts
Why Do Indians Love Lions SO MUCH?
You can’t actually see the Great Wall of China from space. But at night, the brightly illuminated India-Pakistan border can be visible from orbit. Stretching roughly 3,000 km, sections of the border are lined with fencing and tens of thousands of floodlights, creating a striking line of light across the landscape. #India #Pakistan #GreatWallOfChina #Space #Geography #History #Shorts
Why Can You See the India-Pakistan Border From Space?
India’s Aravalli range was taking shape long before dinosaurs walked the Earth—and before the first trees grew. These weathered mountains have more than a billion years of history behind them. Makes our oldest politicians seem pretty young. #Aravalli #IndianGeography #Shorts
This Indian Mountain Is Older Than Dinosaurs…And Trees!
Why Lord Krishna says it’s ok for devout Hindus to wear shorts.
Dear Right Wing Hindus, Stop Slapping People
India is the only large country whose internal borders were drawn along the lines people speak. How did this happen? The Indian National Congress had backed the idea of language-based provinces since 1917. After Partition, Jawaharlal Nehru wanted nothing to do with it. He had just watched the country split once on the basis of religion, and he believed a second division on the basis of language would finish the job. So when Telugu speakers asked for their own province, he refused. He kept refusing while black flags met him on the campaign trail, and while the Congress lost all but 43 of 143 seats in the Andhra region. Potti Sreeramulu was a Gandhian who had marched at Dandi and lived at Sabarmati Ashram. Gandhi had talked him out of a fast once before, in 1946, when he refused food over temple entry for Dalits in the Madras Presidency. By 1952 Gandhi was dead, and there was nobody left with the standing to stop him. He died on 15 December 1952, on day 58. Within days, Nehru conceded. Andhra State was inaugurated on 1 October 1953, and the States Reorganisation Commission that followed redrew the rest of the country. This video covers what he actually asked for, why Nehru resisted, and which demands the Commission turned down. Chapters 0:00 The most famous hunger fast nobody talks about 0:41 Why Nehru opposed language states 1:06 Punjab and the 1951 elections 1:47 The Telugu movement and the black flags 2:22 Who Potti Sreeramulu was 2:56 The fast Gandhi talked him out of 3:46 58 days, and the letter to Rajagopalachari 4:42 Nehru backs down 5:07 The States Reorganisation Commission 5:32 The demands that were refused Sources and further reading Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (Picador, 2007). The chapters on the linguistic reorganisation of the states are the spine of this video. Robert D. King, Nehru and the Language Politics of India (Oxford University Press, 1997). Paul R. Brass, The Politics of India Since Independence (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Report of the States Reorganisation Commission, Government of India, 1955. Report of the Linguistic Provinces Commission (the Dhar Commission), Government of India, 1948, and the JVP Committee report of 1949 by Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, second series, for Nehru's correspondence with C. Rajagopalachari in December 1952. Corrections The state inaugurated on 1 October 1953 was Andhra State. Andhra Pradesh was formed later, in 1956, when Telangana was merged in. Looped in History covers Indian history, Indian mythology and Buddhism. Subscribe if you want the evidence rather than the legend.
This Unknown Man is Why India Has States Based On Language
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
Should Mount Everest Be Named After This Indian Mathematician?
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