The Historical Significance of the Johar Valley Trade Routes

Number of words: 508 The Rawats of Johar valley claim that their ancestors were part of the large-scale Hindu exodus from Rajputana following the invasion of Mohammed Ghori in the twelfth century. In about 1680 a leading member of the clan named Hiru Dham Singh went on a pilgrimage to Kailas-Manasarovar. He took with him … Read more

The Cultural Mosaic of Assam’s North-East Frontier

Number of words: 551 Bedingfield’s fellow gunner was given a more challenging commission, which was to explore the ‘perfect blank’ that lay upriver from Rungpore. Making his way up the Brahmaputra in a Bengali country boat by a laborious combination of sailing, poling and towing from the bank, Philip Burlton eventually came to an area … Read more

British Rule in Assam’s Cultural Identity

Number of words: 528 Throughout the period of British rule, India’s North-East Frontier, the province of Assam bordering on Tibet and Burma, was regarded by those who served there as the forgotten frontier. It was known for its tea gardens and for very little else. In 1865 one of India’s leading newspapers summed up the … Read more

The Mystical Allure of Mount Kailas and Manasarovar

Number of words: 890 Even in the strictest geological terms Kailas stands alone, being the world’s highest deposit of tertiary conglomerate – a vast pile of cemented gravel laid down in the period immediately preceding the arrival of early man and then thrown up into the sky. It has four clearly-defined walls that match the … Read more

Threat of Space Debris to Future Missions

Number of words: 500 Earlier in March this year, the 18 Space Control Squadron (18SPCS), a body that detects, tracks, and identifies artificial objects in Earth’s orbit reported that the Chinese satellite, Yunhai 1-02 had broken up in space and it was tracking 21 pieces of the debris. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell recently came across the likely cause … Read more