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A Civilizational Manifesto: Reading Amritasya Putrah by Kanchan Banerjee
In an era marked by cultural amnesia and spiritual disorientation, Amritasya Putrah by Kanchan Banerjee arrives not merely as a book, but as a civilizational invocation, a reminder that India is not merely a geopolitical construct but a living, breathing samskriti, whose soul has been nourished for millennia by the chants of the Vedas, the wisdom of the Upanishads, and the tapasya of countless rishis. The title, drawn from the Upanishadic mahāvākya, “Shrinwantu vishwe amritasya putrah” (“Listen, O Children of Immortality”), is not a poetic flourish, but a call to reawaken the sacred identity that lies dormant beneath centuries of conquest, colonization, and confusion. Banerjee does not write as a…
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No Return Ticket: Exile of Asha and the Empire’s Silence
“Some ships don’t return. Neither do some girls.” Uma Lohray’s debut novel, The One-Way Ships, doesn’t arrive with fanfare or scream for your attention. Instead, it stays, like a low tide that never quite recedes, leaving behind salt, silt, and silence. This is not a page-turner; it’s a page-sojourner. It lingers. It leans. It listens, to the overlooked stories of Indian ayahs shipped across the seas during the British Raj. Raised to cradle colonial children, many of these women were quietly abandoned. Forgotten. If that opening line doesn’t leave a mark, wait until you live through Asha’s. Threadbare Truths, Tenderly Told Lohray dares what Indian fiction seldom attempts, she zooms…
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India vs Bharat | Exploring an Identity Crisis? Dr Koenraad Elst Breaks It Down | Itihasdhir
Buy The Book: https://www.amazon.in/Indias-Name-Symbols-Koenraad-Elst/dp/9385485482 In this powerful conversation, Dr. Koenraad Elst joins Itihasdhir to unpack the arguments from his latest book, India’s Name and Symbols, which confronts the civilizational consequences of using the term ‘India’ over ‘Bharat’. Are we living under inherited colonial semantics? What symbols truly represent us — and what have we unconsciously inherited from our colonizers? 📚 About Us: Itihasdhir is a podcast book review channel dedicated to diving deep into the world of literature. We explore a diverse range of books, from historical masterpieces and contemporary bestsellers to timeless classics and thought-provoking non-fiction. Our mission is to ignite your passion for reading and offer insightful perspectives…
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India to England on a One‑Way Ships | Uma Lohray’s Haunting Novel | Itihasdhir
What happens when you’re sent across oceans… with no way home? We explore The One-Way Ships by Uma Lohray—a haunting historical novel set in colonial India that tells the heart-wrenching story of Asha, a young ayah (nanny) who is abandoned in England after being taken there to serve British families. This is not just a book review. It’s a deep dive into a forgotten chapter of British colonial history—when hundreds of Indian women and girls were shipped off to foreign lands as caretakers and often left behind, voiceless and invisible. 📚 About Us: Itihasdhir is a podcast book review channel dedicated to diving deep into the world of literature. We…
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The Great Betrayal: Sita Ram Goel’s Exposé on India’s Secular Façade
In the grand theatre of post-independence Indian political discourse, few words enjoy as much sanctity, and as much ambiguity, as “secularism.” Brandished as a talisman of modernity, inclusivity, and national unity, secularism occupies an untouchable moral space in the republic’s ideological architecture. But what if this sacred principle has been, in practice, a mask for majoritarian disempowerment, a conduit for civilizational erasure, and a lever for political duplicity? This is the argument, indeed, the warning, laid out with clinical precision and moral courage by the late Sita Ram Goel in his seminal work, India’s Secularism: New Name for National Subversion. First published in 1993, the book remains as urgent today…
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Amritasya Putrah: Kanchan Banerjee on Bharat’s Eternal Soul | Itihasdhir
In this powerful episode of Itihasdhir, author and civilizational thinker Kanchan Banerjee joins us to discuss his groundbreaking new book Amritasya Putrah: Children of the Rishis and Immortals. Rooted in the wisdom of the Vedas, Upanishads, and epics, the book lays out six core pillars of Bharatiya civilization and offers a compelling vision for India’s spiritual and cultural renaissance. Kanchan Banerjee delves into the meaning of being “Amritasya Putrah: The Children of Immortality”—and warns against the dangers of forgetting our dharmic roots in the face of modernity. 📚 About Us: Itihasdhir is a podcast book review channel dedicated to diving deep into the world of literature. We explore a diverse…
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Splendours of Royal Mysore by Vikram Sampath, the Court Chronicler of the 21st Century
When royalty needed a biographer six centuries later, Vikram Sampath rose gallantly to the occasion. Vikram Sampath, for those who don’t know, is not your average historian droning on about “subaltern agency” in a beige lecture hall. No—he is a historian with flair, drama, and the distinct sense that he may have missed his calling as a royal archivist in a parallel 18th-century Mysore. With a background in engineering, finance, and Carnatic music (because why not?), Sampath took it upon himself to exhume the largely neglected Wodeyar dynasty and give them the full ceremonial welcome history denied them. He does not merely write history; he resurrects it, applies sandalwood paste,…
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The ‘Joy Bangla’ Deception – When Facts Ruin a Perfectly Good Myth
Ah yes, Joy Bangla — that glorious slogan of liberation, unity, and secular idealism. The golden chant that promised a utopia of linguistic harmony, free from the tyranny of religion. Or so we were told. Then along comes Prof. Kausik Gangopadhyay, wielding something utterly outrageous: data. And logic. And historical evidence. Honestly, the nerve of this man. In The ‘Joy Bangla’ Deception, Gangopadhyay does the unthinkable. He suggests that maybe, just maybe, the entire romanticised narrative of Bangladesh’s secular birth is a wee bit overstated. Heresy, I know. He dares to point out that the movement which began as a fight for linguistic rights quickly shapeshifted into a comfortable cover…
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The Untold Bangladesh Story: Prof Kausik Gangopadhyay Exposes ‘Joy Bangla’ Deception | Itihasdhir
What lies beneath the slogan ‘Joy Bangla’? In this explosive episode of Itihasdhir, Professor Kausik Gangopadhyay, economist and author of The ‘Joy Bangla’ Deception, unravels the uncomfortable truths behind Bangladesh’s founding myth. From the 1971 Liberation War to the present-day politics of identity and Islamism, Prof. Gangopadhyay shows how linguistic nationalism became a cover for rising religious fundamentalism—and why this deception threatens the future of Bengali Hindus on both sides of the border. 📚 About Us: Itihasdhir is a podcast book review channel dedicated to diving deep into the world of literature. We explore a diverse range of books, from historical masterpieces and contemporary bestsellers to timeless classics and thought-provoking…
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Butshikan: Tears of Somanatha — A Reckoning Disguised as Historical Fiction
In an age when historical fiction often amounts to glorified costume dramas confused about whether they are history lessons or romantic novellas, Butshikan enters the literary space like a war conch. Ancient, resonant, and utterly uninterested in playing to gallery tastes, it does not pander. It provokes. This is not history retold. It is history reimagined through a civilisational gaze that neither flatters nor forgives. A Story That Refuses to Apologise for Its Intelligence How refreshing, in a world saturated with historical novels that treat the reader as a well-meaning but dim cousin, to find a work that assumes its audience might actually know the difference between the Cholas and the Chauhans. Butshikan…