How the Parsis Shaped Theatre in Colonial Bombay

Flops, frauds or community disapproval did not prove obstacles to the growth of the theatre enterprise. Elphinstone Circle in Bombay in the 1870s. Photo: Lee-Warner Collection/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When one thinks of Horniman Circle – the ring of elegant old buildings in south Mumbai – today, several associations spring to mind: the glossy storefronts of Starbucks and Hermes – the temples of neoliberal globalism; men snoozing on the garden’s shaded benches – a respite from...
Tags: Life, China, Wikipedia, India, Turkey, Iran, Starbucks, Victoria, Theater, Hermès, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bombay, Madras, Town Hall

An astronomically good deal: King James I and the Shogun’s silver telescope

Over the winter of 1610-11, a magnificent telescope was built in London. It was almost two metres long, cast in silver and covered with gold. This was the first telescope ever produced in such an extraordinary way, worthy of a great king or emperor. Why was it made and who was it going to?The origins of telescopes are shrouded in mystery. All that is known for sure is that the first one to be patented had been built in Middleburgh, in the Dutch Republic, in October 1608. The English were soon ma...
Tags: Asia, Books, Japan, England, London, Featured, Scotland, Spain, History, Rome, Portugal, Venice, British, Telescope, James, Guy Fawkes

Indian court rejects retail giant Future Group’s plea against Amazon

An Indian court rejected Future Group’s plea that sought to prevent its partner Amazon from interfering in — and blocking — the Indian retail giant’s $3.4 billion asset sale deal to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, delivering a glimmer of hope to the American e-commerce firm that has invested more than $6.5 billion in the world’s second largest internet market. Future Group was seeking an ad-interim injunction to restrain its partner Amazon from writing to regulators and other authorit...
Tags: Amazon, Ecommerce, Asia, Singapore, India, Tech, Jeff Bezos, Amazon India, Reliance, Delhi High Court, Reliance Industries, BCG, East India company, Competition Commission of India, Mukesh Ambani, Future Group

‘Startups moving abroad not dissimilar to the East India company days’: Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Info Edge founder and vice chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani has called out the overt influence of foreign funds in the Indian startup landscape, likening it to the days of the East India Company. “Basically institutionalised transfer of wealth away from India while living off the Indian market and Indian labour somewhat like the days of the Company rule,” the founder of many internet companies like Naukri.com said in a series of tweets last week. Shades of the East India Company type of situa...
Tags: Travel, Google, News, India, Funding, Company, PTI, Press Trust of India, East India company, Indian Startups, East India, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, NASSCOM, Bikhchandani, East India Company Basically, Bikchhandani

Rusi Surti: Indian cricket’s original braveheart and ‘the poor man’s Garry Sobers’

Queenslanders saw one of their own in the first and only Indian Test player to play in the Sheffield Shield Patrick Skene Indian Test cricketer Rusi Surti plays a classic cover drive. ‘To see him perform in the middle was like sipping champagne and he gave endless pleasure to fans,’ says Kersi Meher-Homji. Photograph: Percy Surti Fifty-three years ago, the second Indian Test team to tour Australia arrived, turning the wheel of history and sowing the seeds of the respect Virat Kohli’s modern-da...
Tags: England, Australia, Life, India, Sports, Pakistan, Queensland, New Zealand, Brisbane, Muslim, PERCY, Melbourne, Mumbai, Western Australia, West Indies, Hindu

India approves Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal with Future Group, brings new headache to Amazon

The Indian watchdog said on Friday it has approved the $3.4 billion deal between the nation’s two largest retail giants, Future Group and Reliance Retail, posing a new headache for American e-commerce group Amazon, which had raised objections over the deal. The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Indian antitrust body, said in a brief statement that it had approved the proposed acquisition of retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing businesses of Future Group, India’s second large...
Tags: Amazon, Ecommerce, Asia, Government, Singapore, India, Tech, Delhi, Amazon India, Reliance, SEBI, CCI, East India company, Reliance Retail, Competition Commission of India CCI, Mukesh Ambani

India approves Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal with Future Group, brings a new headache to Amazon

The Indian watchdog said on Friday it has approved the $3.4 billion deal between the nation’s two largest retail giants, Future Group and Reliance Retail, posing a new headache for American e-commerce group Amazon in the key overseas market. The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the Indian watchdog, said in a brief statement that it had approved the proposed acquisition of retail, wholesale, logistics, and warehousing businesses of Future Group, India’s second largest retail chain, by Re...
Tags: Amazon, Ecommerce, Asia, Government, Singapore, India, Tech, Delhi, Amazon India, Reliance, SEBI, CCI, East India company, Reliance Retail, Competition Commission of India CCI, Mukesh Ambani

Mithuben Hormusji Petit: Indian Freedom Fighter

MITHUBEN PETIT, WHO FOUGHT FOR INDIA’s FREEDOM WITH GANDHIJI, RENOUNCED HER COMFORTS AND LUXURIES Petit surname has its roots in the French word ‘petit’ (meaning physically small). One of the women pioneers of India’s freedom struggle, Mithuben’s ancestors had worked as a shipping clerk and interpreter for the British East India Company, French merchants who dealt with a lively, short Parsi clerk and they called him ‘le petit Parsi’. He was great grandfather of Mithuben’s father Sir Dinshaw Men...
Tags: Life, India, History, Mumbai, Bombay, Gujarat, Petit, Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Raj, Parsi, Padma Shri, East India company, Sardar Patel, Gandhiji, Kasturba

Wiip Teams With India’s Roy Kapur Films on ‘The Anarchy’ Series Adaptation (EXCLUSIVE)

William Dalrymple’s best-selling historical book on colonialism “The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company,” is being adapted into a series by independent studio Wiip and India’s Roy Kapur Films. Set during 1599 to 1802, “The Anarchy” traces the ascent of The East India Company against the decline and fall of the Mughal […]
Tags: Asia, News, India, Global, William Dalrymple, East India company, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Wiip, Roy Kapur, The Anarchy, India s Roy Kapur Films Set

Kingdom of mountains: Dogras and the East India Company

The Treaty of Amritsar, between the East India Company and the Dogra ruler, Raja Gulab Singh on 16 March 1846 was a watershed, for it not only created the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under the suzerainty of the British Indian Empire, it also virtually defined the southern, eastern and... Canary Trap is a platform for exclusive, well-researched, and objective information relating to intelligence, terrorism, corruption and politico-security matters.
Tags: Publishing, Tibet, History, Kashmir, Amritsar, Jammu, Ladakh, Dogra, East India company, Indian History, Jammu and Kashmir, Canary Trap, Kashmir Issue, Shiv Kunal Verma, India-China, SKV Kashmir Series

Indian startups explore alliance and alternative app store to fight Google’s ‘monopoly’

Google, which reaches more internet users than any other firm in India and commands 99% of the nation’s smartphone market, has stumbled upon an odd challenge in the world’s second-largest internet market: Scores of top local entrepreneurs. Dozens of top startups and firms in India are working to form an alliance and toying with the idea of launching an app store to cut their reliance on Google, five people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The list of entrepreneurs includes high-pr...
Tags: Google, Google Play Store, Facebook, Apps, Asia, India, Samsung, Tech, Bloomberg, Silicon Valley, Mountain View, Play Store, Payments, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm, Reliance Jio

Indian startups explore forming an alliance and alternative app store to fight Google’s ‘monopoly’

Google, which reaches more internet users than any other firm in India and commands 99% of the nation’s smartphone market, has stumbled upon an odd challenge in the world’s second largest internet market: Scores of top local entrepreneurs. Dozens of top startups and firms in India are working to form an alliance and toying with the idea of launching an app store to cut their reliance on Google, five people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The list of entrepreneurs include high-pro...
Tags: Google, Google Play Store, Facebook, Apps, Asia, India, Samsung, Tech, Bloomberg, Silicon Valley, Mountain View, Play Store, Payments, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm, Reliance Jio

Revolutionary freedom fighter Turrrebaz Khan and the soldiers who led attack on British Residency: Independence Movement's Martyrs in Hyderabad

  Shams Ur Rehman AlaviTura Baz Khan alias Turrebaz Khan was the fearless revolutionary who led the audacious attack on British residency in Hyderabad. This heroic act and the supreme sacrifice of soldiers, had caused a stir in the entire region, during the first war of Independence in 1857. The attack was planned in order to free the rebel Indian soldiers who were held in prison, there. Earlier, as news from the North about the revolution in Oudh and other regions arrived, there was resentment...
Tags: Amazon, India, Religion, Delhi, Hyderabad, Times of India, East India company, Andaman Nicobar, Independence Movement, Great Freedom Fighters of India, Muslim freedom fighters, Indian freedom struggle, Role of Muslims in Independence Movement, Turrebaz Khan, Turrrebaz Khan, Shams Ur Rehman AlaviTura Baz Khan

Bihar: Where Many Rivers Meet

I came across this passage in Vipul Singh's interesting book, Speaking Rivers: Environmental History of A Mid-Ganga Flood Country, 1540-1885.    "In consequence of the frequent changes which take place in the channels of the principal rivers that intersect the territories immediately to the presidency of Fort William and the shifting of the sands which lie in the beds of those rivers chars or small islands are often thrown up by alluvion in the midst of the stream, or near one of the banks and ...
Tags: Europe, Books, China, Environment, Book Review, Seo, Agriculture, Delhi, Agra, Bengal, Bihar, Calcutta, Munger, Varanasi, Fort William, Patna

IRIS Jon Frum

 So I'm wikiwandering around the world and wind up in Bandar Abbas, which apparently means "Port of Abbas". Abbas was the Safavid Shah who, with English help*, took the port city of Comorão from the Portuguese (who had themselves taken it from the Persians a hundred years earlier**) and promptly named it after himself.These days the city's port serves as a major base for the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, having, as it does, a commanding position on the Strait of Hormuz.The harbor facilities are...
Tags: Guns, US, Iran, History, Royal Navy, Ships, Shah, Tam, Abbas, Strait, East India company, Bandar Abbas, Wikiwander, Googlesat, Joseph Dempsey, IRIS Jon Frum

Naoroji Rustomji Manek: This Surat Man Sued East India Co. & Won

He was the first Zoroastrian to sail to England from India; not to mention the first Indian who sued the British and won! He sailed back in victory with his cause vindica­ted and putting his entrepreneur skills upfront, he was received with great respect. Article by Ashleshaa Khurana Naoroji Rustomji Manek Seth (1662-1732) was the son of the philanthropic Parsi Rustomji Manekji of Surat, after whom Tapi town’s Rustompura area has been named. Upon the death of Rustomji, who was one of the chief ...
Tags: Europe, England, London, Life, India, History, Bombay, Salisbury, Company, Courtney, Wadi, East India company, Phipps, Surat, Willi, Nawab

Revolutionary freedom fighter Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi who was jailed in Andaman Nicobar: Exiled, died in prison, buried in Port Blair

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi Revolutionary freedom fighter Allama Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi who had given an open call for armed struggle against British, in the capital of India, rests in eternal sleep in his grave in Andaman Nicobar where he was exiled.Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi had given this open call in Delhi, also giving the speech after over 14,000 soldiers had arrived, soon after uprising in Meerut and Awadh. He had issued the diktat at Jama Masjid. The widely respected scholar and author had taken...
Tags: India, Religion, Delhi, Ilm, Sadr, Metcalfe, Lucknow, Khairabad, Meerut, East India company, Jama Masjid, Port Blair, Mirza Ghalib, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Andaman Nicobar, Saharanpur

Parsis in Hong Kong: what’s the secret behind their growing population?

Twelve years ago, Homyar Nasirabadwala was working as an accountant in his hometown of Mumbai, India, when he came across a job advert in a Parsi magazine seeking a full-time dasturji, a Zoroastrian priest. Already ordained in doctrines dating back to antediluvian Persia that influenced essential principles of Judaism and Christianity, Nasirabadwala figured it might be time for a change, so after 11 years of number-crunching service at Shapoorji Pallonji & Co, he applied online. Article by Rhea ...
Tags: Hong Kong, News, Congress, Life, China, India, Los Angeles, Bbc, Beijing, United States, New York Times, Paris, Hsbc, Shanghai, Jordan, Nigel

Want a company that lasts? Start a bank or a brewery

A Japanese company has been building Buddhist temples for almost a millennium and a half.It's the oldest continuously operating company in the world, but quite atypical.If you want to build a business that lasts, banks, breweries, and postal services are a good bet – but there are intriguing exceptions. Longest surviving companies 'The oldest profession in the world': thanks to a popular short story by Kipling (1), that label is now firmly attached to the sex trade. Yet up until the First World...
Tags: Capitalism, Economics, Europe, Africa, Asia, South america, Maps

Blast From the Past: Tea in the Galaxy

With the wealth of valuable knowledge we’ve accumulated over the years, we feel that some previous posts are worth sharing again. Thus, Fridays are “Blast From the Past” – where we choose a T Ching post from this month but a previous year that we feel is worth another read and breathe new life into it. Enjoy! Originally Posted: July 2007 Contributor: T Ching “No,” he said, “look, it’s very, very simple … all I want …...
Tags: Tea, Blast From The Past, China, India, Archives, Douglas Adams, Arthur, Ceylon, East India company, Ching, Generic License, The Hitchhiker's Guide to, Nutri Matic

Urdu Podcast in India: Urdu Literature Radio brings excerpts from eminent Urdu authors in audio form to break script barrier, take text to more people

Podcast is fast emerging as a medium to communicate and connect with the audience.The aim behind 'Urdu Literature Radio' is to present excerpts from major works of Urdu authors, poets, and litterateurs.Firstly, the aim is that reading a few paragraphs from, may draw the attention of the reader and prompt him to read the book.For example, if 5 pages are read out from a 500 page novel, it can be an introduction to the reader.Once interest is generated, people make an effort to read the book, bu...
Tags: India, Religion, Baghdad, Kolkata, Urdu, Lucknow, East India company, Alif Laila, Urdu Literature, Reading Urdu, Urdu Literature Radio, Urdu Podcast, Urdu Podcasting, East India Companya, Qurratul Ain Hyder, Salahuddin Parvez

India’s Siddharth Roy Kapur Nabs Rights to William Dalrymple Colonialism Book ‘The Anarchy’

Prolific Indian producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired audio-visual rights to author and historian William Dalrymple’s bestselling historical book on colonialism “The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.” Set during 1599 to 1802, “The Anarchy” traces the ascent of The East India Company against the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire. […]
Tags: Asia, News, India, Global, William Dalrymple, East India company, Siddharth Roy Kapur, The Anarchy, East India Company Set

India’s Siddharth Roy Kapur Nabs Rights to William Dalrymple Colonialism Novel ‘The Anarchy’

Prolific Indian producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired audio-visual rights to author and historian William Dalrymple’s bestselling novel on colonialism “The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company.” Set during 1599 to 1802, “The Anarchy” traces the ascent of The East India Company against the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire. It […]
Tags: Asia, News, India, Global, William Dalrymple, East India company, Siddharth Roy Kapur, The Anarchy, East India Company Set

Byram N. Jeejeebhoy, land baron and developer, dies

Byram N. Jeejeebhoy, one of Mumbai’s largest private landlords and descendant of the 19th century philanthropists Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, passed away at his Worli residence in Mumbai on Tuesday morning. He was 75. The funeral at the Worli crematorium later in the day was attended only by a small group of friends and relatives. Article by Nauzer K Bharucha | Times of India Family sources said he had been ailing for the past few years. “Byram was a bon vivant, an accomplish...
Tags: News, Life, Mumbai, Byram, Maharashtra, East India company, Sahara Group, London Dubai, Borivali, Worli, Taj Hotel, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, Nauzer K Bharucha, Bombay Parsi Punchayat BPP, Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, Byram N Jeejeebhoy

Fading Sweetness: A Parsi Story in Pakistan

The Beginning In the masterfully tucked away Dinshaw Avari colony in Karachi, Syrus Doctor spends every business day looking after a tiny and all-but-forgotten library towered over by the Tower of Silence, a unique structure used by Zoroastrians during funerals, next door. He is of short stature, a middle-aged man in a striped T-shirt, standing next to a golden dog that, considering the Parsi adoration of dogs, probably belongs to somebody in the colony. “It used to be active,” I detect a hi...
Tags: England, Hollywood, Life, India, Iran, Earth, Heritage, Pakistan, Indiana Jones, Islamabad, Ali, Bombay, James Baldwin, Company, LAHORE, Punjab

6 True Stories to Read in February

It's no secret, I love nonfiction. Give me biography, history, nature and travel writing, science and space, and everything else. The true stories that caught my eye this month cover a variety of topics, from the past to the present. Let's take a look. Troubled History 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton (Knopf, Feb. 11): Written by a respected historian, this is a focused look the critical months of the birth of new nation: "from the Boston Tea Party and the first...
Tags: Audiobooks, Europe, Books, England, Science, London, Maryland, Boston, US, History, Chicago, Harvard, Prague, Sherlock, William, West Midlands

6 True Stories to Read in February

It's no secret, I love nonfiction. Give me biography, history, nature and travel writing, science and space, and everything else. The true stories that caught my eye this month cover a variety of topics, from the past to the present. Let's take a look. Troubled History 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton (Knopf, Feb. 11): Written by a respected historian, this is a focused look the critical months of the birth of new nation: "from the Boston Tea Party and the first...
Tags: Europe, Books, England, London, Maryland, Boston, US, Chicago, Harvard, Prague, Sherlock, William, West Midlands, Pacific, Cape Cod, New England

A Temple with a Dargah within - Sri Angala Parameswari Temple, Chintadripet

Angala Parameswari Temple, Chintadripet Chinna Thari Pettah, known commonly as Chintadripettah was a planned township, created by  President George Morton Pitt, out of Sunku Venkatachalam (Sunku Rama)'s garden in 1734. Weavers, spinners, painters, washers and dyers along with priests, attenders, cleaners and scavengers were moved from Madurai and Udayarpalayam to produce indigo, long cloth and gingham for the British market.  Sunku Rama had been the Chief Merchant of the East India Co...
Tags: Religion, Council, Pitt, Madras, Madurai, Collett, East India company, Cooum temples, Vijayanagara, Dargah, Varada, Angalamman, Fort St George, Angala Parameswari, Chintadripet Temples, Madras Temples

Digital Zoroastrian at the British Library

The British Library is fortunate in having an unparalled collection of over 100 Zoroastrian works ranging from the oldest, the ninth century Ashem Vohu prayer written in Sogdian script discovered by Aurel Stein in Central Asia in 1907, to, most recently, manuscripts collected especially for the Royal Society in London during the late-nineteenth century. Although Zoroastrianism is Iranian in origin, most of our manuscripts in fact come from India. They are written in Avestan (Old Iranian), Middle...
Tags: London, Life, India, Iran, West, Heritage, University of Oxford, Royal Society, New Delhi, British Library, Bombay, Hyde, Central Asia, Levant, Perron, Queen Anne

Indian business owners are furious about Amazon's $1 billion expansion into their country and are calling Jeff Bezos an 'economic terrorist' (AMZN)

Small business owners in India are protesting Amazon, saying they won't be able to compete with the steep discounts it offers other suppliers. An organizer of the protest said Amazon will "destroy small retailers" and called CEO Jeff Bezos an "economic terrorist." The protests coincided with Bezos' trip to India, where he announced on Wednesday that Amazon plans to invest $1 billion in the country, calling a US-India alliance the "most important" of the 21st century. Meanwhile, India's antitru...
Tags: Amazon, Hong Kong, Europe, Germany, Southeast Asia, India, Trends, Walmart, United States, Jeff Bezos, Flipkart, Federal Trade Commission, US India, Bezos, Cait, Agarwal