SANTOSH 9702: Historical

Showing posts with label Historical. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

What are some rare historical photos whose existence you never imagined?

At the dawn of the 20th century, the Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) developed a three-lens camera that produced images of incredible quality for the time. Impressed, Tsar Nicholas II sent him to do a photographic report on the Russian Empire.

The photos that Sergei managed to take, although they are over a century old, look like they were taken yesterday, giving a realistic picture of the daily lives of Russians ten years before the Soviet Union.

I highly recommend that you do some research on Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, as all of his photos are extraordinary.

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

What were some historical events during 1947 partition?

The last thing done by Lord Mountbatten as the Viceroy of India was to Promote the wife of the Nawab of Palanpur to the title of “Highness”

This is one of the most interesting events around independence and it happened on the night of freedom just before a few hours of India’s independence.

On 14th August 1947 during the late evening hours Lord Mountbatten was sitting alone in his study realising that he was the viceroy of India for just couple of hours and that all the power he had over 1/5th of humanity would be gone once the clock hits 12am as India would be free with Nehru as the PM.

So he realised he must do something exceptional while he was still one of the most powerful men in the world. So he decided to promote the wife of the Nawab Palanpur Begum Jahanara, to the rank of “Highness”.

The Nawab of Palampur and Mountbatten were great friends even before Mountbatten became the viceroy. In 1945 the Nawab got married to an Australian woman and requested the British govt. to award her the status of “Highness”. But it was denied by the viceroy as the British policy was against Indian maharajas getting married to women of other countries. His wife converted to Islam and the Nawab even requested Mountbatten to intervene and he did intervene but his request was not entertained by the then viceroy.

So the last thing he did as the viceroy was to promote her as “Highness”.

However, life had other plans for her. Her Highness (as she was called) along with her husband had moved to Europe after independence and had suffered huge financial problems. The Nawab died and her highness spent rest of her life teaching english to rich Arab kids in Geneva.

Image source: The Hindu Businessline