MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATIONS.

 

When we mention Mesopotamia, we mean all the civilizations that have occurred in the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in Iraq.

Several civilizations flourished there one after another. The first was the SUMERIAN civilization. The first city of this civilization was “URUK” which came up around 3200 BC. It had a population of 50,000. The Sumerians started the earliest form of written language known as cuneiform tablets.

By 3000 BC the Sumerians controlled the entire Mesopotamia. Their cities were ERICH, ERIDU, KISH, LAGASH, URUK and UR. The first king of a united Sumer was one Etana of Kish. They also produced the world’s first literature which was named the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. This started as poems and tales dating back to 2100 BC, but the final version was written down by the Babylonians in 12^th century BC. This was later lost till it was unearthed at Mosul in Iraq by archaeologists.

The Sumerian civilization fell to the Semitic AKKADIANS in 2334 BC. The Akkadians were led by SARGON THE GREAT. The Akkadian empire lasted for 180 years between 2334 and 2154 BC.

This was the world’s first multicultural empire with a central government. Sargon conquered all of Sumer and also Syria. Under him trade beyond the borders grew and architecture improved. After that there was civil unrest and the Sumerians took control again only to be defeated by the Semitic AMORITES from the Arabian Desert in the West and the ELAMITES from the East in 1950 BC.  

While the Elamites attacked Southern Mesapotamia and took cities like Ur, the Amorites attacked the North and one of the villages captured by them later grew into a great city called Babylon.

Sometime before 1800 BC the Amorites set up their first king in Babylon. However, the Babylonians could get control of entire Mesapotamia only by time of Hammurabi who ruled between 1790-1750 BC. The Babylonian language developed and the Sumerian fell into decline.

Hammurabi was one of the greatest rulers of ancient times. He gave a code of laws to the people and also enforced them. This is the oldest surviving law in the world. The code was originally inscribed on a huge basalt rock. This is now in the “Louvre” museum at Paris. The text of his code runs like the edicts of king Ashoka some 1400 years late.

I rooted out the enemy above and below,

I made an end of war,

I promised the welfare of the land,

I made the peoples rest in friendly habitation,

I have governed them in peace. I have sheltered them in my strength.

 

There were 280 parts of the code with rules and regulations for Babylonian society which was split into 3 classes;

 1. Amelu--Nobles, warriors & officials

2. Mushkinu—Commoners, merchants, craftsmen and farmers,

3. Wardu—Slaves

 

The laws varied according to classes. See the resemblances to our own Manu.

 “ If a noble has broken  another nobles bone, they shall break his bone.”

“If he (noble) has destroyed the eye of a commoner or has broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver”

 Theft from a noble had to be repaid 30 times, but theft from a commoner only 10 times. If a house collapsed and killed the owner, the builder was put to death. If the house killed the owners’ son, then the builders’ son has to die.

 Surprisingly Hammurabi was concerned about the treatment of women and that was in 1700 BC which is simply amazing.  He enacted laws allowing women to inherit the husband’s house, land and possessions.  He also introduced legal formalities in business transactions. No one could sell property or transfer it without a written contract. Hammurabi also regulated wages and setting down maximum rates of work in various trades.

 Hammurabi did not invent these laws but he assembled the laws prevalent at that time and also added his own to them. The code was inscribed on a huge pillar so that his people would know what their legal rights were. Hammurabi also extended and improved the canal system of Babylon.

 The knowledge of the Babylonians in mathematics was enhanced by their contact with the Egyptians.

By about 1700 AD, the Babylonians were using multiplication tables, square roots and even some algebra. They understood Geometry and the principles later stated as the theorem of Pythagoras.

We derive the 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle from them. The first library in the world was at Babylon where the books were preserved on papyrus rolls.

Babylonians loved poetry and their favourite epic was the “Epic of Gilgamesh” which was originally Sumerian but was absorbed into the Babylonian literature. The legend survives to this day.

Babylon also had the first standing army in the world, so its borders were fully protected from infiltration by any invader.

When this remarkable king did in 1750 BC, he left no capable successor to takeover and Babylon fell on bad times. First to the HITTITES and later to the KASSITES both Indo European (Aryan) races who lived in the regions of Persia.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT.

 

He was born at Patna to Krishna Kumar Singh, as the youngest of 5 children. The rest 4 were his sisters. One of his sisters Mitu Singh became a state level cricket player later. His family moved to Delhi after his mother’s death in 2002 where he completed his schooling.

He was an avid reader and was fond of Astrophysics and won the National Olympiad in Physics. He wanted to become an Astronaut or an Air force pilot, but his family put him into studying Mechanical Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering. He was also interested in Bollywood being a fan of Shah Rukh Khan.

When he was doing his Engineering he enrolled in Shiamak Davars dance troup and attended classes under theatre director Barry John. In his 4^th year of Engineering he dropped out of college and decided to take up a career in Bollywood. He moved to Bombay and took up odd jobs. He then joined Nadira Babbars theatre group and stayed with it for two and half years.

He was cast as a 2^nd lead in the TV serial ‘Kish Desh Me Hai Mera Dil” in 2008. Ekta Kapoor was very impressed by him and cast him in another serial “Pavitra Rishta” being telecast in Zee channel against their wishes. He won various Television awards for his role.

In 2011 Sushant Singh was cast in “Kai Po Che” The film has earned a commercial and critical success. For the film, Sushant received a Filmfare nomination for best debutant actor. 

He then starred in Amir Khans PK and later in “Sudh Desi Romance” in 2013 which became hits. Shekhar Kapoor then described him as the most inspiring young actor to emerge out of India. And he was occasionally referred to as the next Shah Rukh Khan. He then starred in “Detective Vyomkesh Bakshi” released in 2015 which was a critical success if not a commercial one.

He was then cast in “ MS Dhoni: The Untold Story” released in 2016 and of course it was a great success becoming the 5^th highest grosser that year. He received critical acclaim and was nominated for many prestigious awards including “ Filmfare Awards, International Indian Film Academy Awards and winning a nomination for the Film Festival of Melbourne.

At the time of release of Dhonis biopic Sushant told the media that he was signed for 5 other films “Rabta, Takadum, Chanda Mama Door Ke and 2 other films. In Rabta Sushant and Alia Bhat were cast in the lead roles in 2015 but Alia Bhat dropped out later in the same year. In 2017 he featured in the Forbes India’s top 100 list.  Rabta released with Kriti Sanon as the lead instead of Alia Bhat in 2017 and it flopped.

He started shooting for Karan Johars “Drive” along with Jacqueline Fernandez but the release of the film was postponed twice in 2018 on account of differences between Karan Johar the producer and Mansukhani the Director.

His next film Kedarnath of Abhishek Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor was initially embroiled in controversy as the theme had an inter religious marriage between a Hindu and a Muslim and the BJP wanted it banned.  It was banned in some districts in Uttarakhand and despite the ban became a commercial success.

In 2018 Sushant was inducted into a company named “ Innsaei Venntures” along with 2 other directors already there. They planned to invest Rs 300 crores in the company which worked in the fields of intellectual property and emerging technologies. He was signed in by the NITI Ayog to become a brand ambassador of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Platform and for promotion of the BHIM mobile payment app.  The same year Rajput announced a creative venture by Innsaei of a 12 biopic series where he would play the role of various historical characters between the years 540 BC to 2015 AD.

In 2019 his film “Sonchiriya” was released. It received positive critical reviews and picked up awards but was not a commercial success. Then came “ Chhichhore” released in 2019 and it became a commercial success. Before the release of his film “Sonchiriya” in an interview Rajput revealed that he was in talks for 12 other films including Chandamama Door Ke.

Finally his old film “Drive” of Karan Johar that was pending for release was released on Netflix in Nov 2019 as a cost cutting measure.

In 2019 he featured for a 2^nd time in the Forbes annual top 100 celebrity list. In January 2020 Sushant floated an NGO “Front India for World Foundation” with intent for working towards eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

In 2017 Rajput was signed for a directorial debut of Mukesh Chabra for a Hindi remake of a Hollywood film. It was finally titled “Dil Bechara” and also featured Saif Ali Khan and Rehman as a music composer. The release date was set for May 2020 and it could not be released due to Covid. It was finally aired through Hotstar after his death and had a record number of views.

Sushant’s personal life had its share of controversies. In 2011 Rajput proposed to his co star Anikta Lokhande on the show Jhalak Dikhlaja during a National Broadcast. In 2012 they started living together. The media talked about their marriage. Rajput stated in an interview that marriage and living together are no different and it is hypocritical to say that the former is legal while the latter is a crime. In 2016 Rajput confirmed that a lavish wedding would be held in December but they separated before that. Which means they lived together for 4 years?

He was later rumored to be dating his Rabta Co star Kriti Sanon which was denied by both. When the sets of Padmaavat were vandalized by the Rajput Karnisena, Rajput supported the producers of the film. For his role in “Chandamama Door Ke” he was sent to NASA for training which he wanted to go back and complete his instructor training for the Artemis program of 2024. He also purchased a 16 inch telescope for stargazing. He had a collection of 125 books on his subjects of interest which included Astrophysics, Physics, Cognitive science and Behavioral Economics.

He used to bring books to the sets and used to read them during the breaks. In 2018 there was another rumor that he is dating his “Kedarnath” co actress Sara Ali Khan but the rumors were never confirmed and they broke up.

In 2019 he started dating Rhea Chakravarthy. They met at a party in April 2019 and dated thereafter.  She found a company for artificial intelligence named Vividrage with her brother and Rajput in Sep 2019. However, it just had a nominal paid up capital. They moved together in December 2019 and lived with Rajput till 8^th June 2019 when she moved out. On 9^th June Rajput's manager Disha Salian committed suicide by jumping out of the 14^th floor of a building and Rajput committed suicide on 15^th June.

 He conveyed to his father that he would marry in 2021 but his father knew about only Ankita Lokhande and nothing about the others.

On 14^th June 2020 Rajput aged 34 was found dead in his Bandra home hanging from a ceiling fan. As per the post mortem death occurred between 11.30 AM and 1.30 PM. Police said it was a case of suicide and he was suffering from clinical depression and bipolar disorder. No foul play was noticed by the police. On 25^th July Rajputs father lodged an FIR at the Patna police station naming Rhea Chakravarthy and 5 others of abetment of suicide.

On 31^st July the Enforcement Directorate has filed a case to investigate money laundering of Rajputs accounts by Rhea Chakravarthy, her parents and associates.

THE TAIWAN DISPUTE

 

Taiwan was formerly known as Formosa. Taiwan lies in the Pacific Ocean, about 160 Km from the South eastern part of the mainland China. It is 400 Km long and has a 145 Km width at the broadest point. It comprises of 86 islands.

In the 13^th century the Han Chinese fishermen started settling on the Penghu islands which are a part of Taiwan. Very few outsiders visited the main island of Taiwan till the 16^th century. Then it was visited by fishermen and traders from Fujian in China, and also both by Chinese and Japanese pirates.

The Dutch East India Company tried to set up an outpost on Penghu islands of Taiwan but was driven away by the Ming forces from China. Finally in 1624 the company managed to set up a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan. When they arrived they found the area to be peopled by about 1500 Chinese. The company encouraged the Chinese from Fujian to settle there and work on Dutch plantations. By the 1660’s 50,000 Chinese were living on the island.

In 1626 the Spanish came in and made Northern Taiwan their base. But by 1642, the Dutch overthrew the Spanish.

After the Ming dynasty fell in 1644 in China, a vassal king was pressurized by the incoming Qing dynasty and shifted his base to Taiwan and in the process expelled the Dutch from Taiwan.

The Dutch now aligned with the Qing dynasty of China. They took a part of Taiwan and made a base but could not make any further progress and withdrew from Taiwan altogether in 1668.

In 1683 the Qing dynasty of China finally annexed Taiwan and ruled till 1895. Japan took Taiwan after a war with China in 1895. A group of high officials loyal to the Chinese Qing dynasty proclaimed the Republic of Formosa in 1895 against the Japanese rule and there was guerrilla resistance to the Japanese in which 14000 Taiwanese were killed. However, the rebellion against the Japanese was not successful.

In October 1944 during the 2^nd world war, the Formosa air battle was fought between the US carrier forces and the Japanese forces in Taiwan. During the war, many Taiwanese joined the Japanese forces.

However, after the war was over, most of Taiwan’s Japanese numbering around 300,000 were expelled to Japan. The Chinese forces assisted by teams of US forces landed in Taiwan and captured it. Later Despite handing it over to China, the allies considered Taiwan to be under the Japanese till 1952 the treaty of San Francisco as per which the possession of Taiwan passed on to China.

However, there was a problem for the transfer because in 1949 there was a communist revolution in China and the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai Shek were defeated. Chiang took about 2 million of his followers and migrated to Taiwan adding to the already present 6 million population there. He then formed a Republic of China (ROC) government there.

Now the problem for Japan is whether to hand over Taiwan to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) or to the Republic of China (ROC) government? China did not attend the signing of the treaty of San Francisco and Japan surrendered the areas to Formosa without actually specifying to whether the surrender was to ROC or PRC.

Taiwan always claimed mainland China while the mainland China in turn claimed Taiwan. But, as you can see, right from 1895 onwards Taiwan had never been a part of China. That is 127 years till now. Yes, it was administered by China for 300 years before 1895, but as long as it is not contiguous with China and the people are not willing to accept China then China should not interfere with Taiwan. Moreover, the forms of government adopted by both is diametrically opposite with one being a democracy and the other Communist.  

NATIONAL HERALD SCAM

 

National Herald is a newspaper published by The Associated Journals Ltd. And is owned by Young India Ltd. a company owned by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

National Herald was first published from Lucknow by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1938. Nehru also started the Associated Journals Ltd. in 1937 with 5000 freedom fighters as its shareholders. Till Nehru was appointed as PM he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of National Herald. The paper was closed in 2008 due to lack of revenue. When it was shut down it had 1000 shareholders. So, what happened to all those shareholders? The National Herald was re launched by Rahul Gandhi in 2017.

The case on National Herald was filed by Subramaniam Swamy against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, their companies and their associated persons in the year 2012.

As per the compliant Associated Journals took an interest free loan of Rs 90.25 crores from the Congress and the loan was not repaid. A closely held company Young India was incorporated in 2010 with a capital of Rs 50 lacs it acquired virtually all the shareholding of AJL and its properties valued at Rs 5000 crores. The debt of Rs 90 crores due from AJL to Congress was assigned to Young India and that is how Young India got hold of AJL. Obviously this can be nothing but a fix.

I checked the shareholding of both AJL and Young India. AJL had a paid up capital of Rs 91.31 crores. Young India paid up capital Rs 5 lacs (and not even 50 lacs as Swamy claimed).

So a company with a paid up Capital of Rs 5 lacs acquired a company with a paid up capital of Rs 91.31 crores. Wonderful.

Look at the Directors of AJL and Young India…..all Congressmen or chamchas.

Directors of AJL   

 Shyam Pitroda,

Arvind Mayaram- IAS Officer of 1978 batch currently appointed as Chief Economic Adviosr by Rajasthan Government.

Pawan Kumar Bansal- Former Minister in MMS Government

 Mallkarjuna Kharge,

Suman Dubey-Former journalist and founder of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Former Press Adviosr to Rajiv Gandhi.

 Prashanto Chandra Sen. –Prcticing Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court

Directors of Young Indian----

Sonia Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi

Mallikarjuna Kharge

Shyam Pitroda

Pawan Kumar Bansal

Suman Dubey

Sonia and Rahul own 38% each in Young India. The rest is owned by Kharge et al.

 

SARADHA SCAM OF WEST BENGAL

 

The Saradha group was established in the year 2006 under the name of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s wife. Sudipto Sen was Chairman and MD of the Saradha group. The land bank he formed in the year 2000 on account of his activity in land development became an attraction for attracting investors to his Ponzi Scheme.

The group promised huge returns on the amounts invested in Chits. They employed agents to sell the scheme in rural areas and 25% to 40% of the deposits were paid as commission to the agents. Initially, they collected money through secured debentures and redeemable preferential bonds. In doing this it already violated the Indian Security Regulations & the Companies Act.

SEBI confronted the Saradha group in 2009. Then the group adapted by opening 200 new companies to create cross holdings, create confusion and confound SEBI. SEBI persisted on in its investigation in 2010. The group then changed the way it raised capital and used collective investment schemes of Tourism packages, forward trading, hotel booking, timeshare credit transfer, real estate, infrastructure finance and motorcycle manufacturing. Investors were simply promised high returns and were totally unaware of the modus operandi of the company.

It also started raising funds through Chit Funds. SEBI warned the West Bengal government about its Chit Fund activities in 2011. This reporting made the Sardha group to change its methods. It bought and sold large number of shares of listed companies and embezzled the amounts  which could not be identified. It also started laundering a large proportion of its funds to Dubai, South Africa and Singapore. By 2012 SEBI could catch that the money is obtained from collective investment rather than for Chit Funds and directed the Saradha group to obtain permission from SEBI for its activities. The group simply ignored it and operated its schemes till its collapse in April 2013.

Earlier, with huge amounts of money at its disposal, it went on to build its image in the public eye by investing in the Bengali film industry and then by recruiting TMC MP Stabdi Roy as brand ambassador and also TMC MP Mithun Chakravarthy. Kunal Ghosh another TMC MP, Kunal Ghosh was made the CEO of its media group. Under him 1500 journalists were recruited and 8 newspapers were printed in 5 languages. Author Aparna Sen was made the editor of Parama, a Bengali weekly brought out by the group.  

CONTROVERSIAL DELHI LIQUOR POLICY

 

After implementation of the new liquor policy on Nov 17, 2021, the Delhi Government shut all government run vends and handed them over to private vendors.

The government said the new policy would eliminate liquor mafia, increase revenue for the government and enhance consumer experience.

When the old Policy was scrapped, the Delhi Government set a goal of about Rs 9500 crore a year on liquor license fees by allowing private companies to open 850 shops in 32 zones.

The Chief Secretary of Delhi released a report on July 8 on the liquor policy alleged financial irregularities. After this report was released and created a storm the AAP government cancelled the new liquor policy.

Now, what are the figures that accrued out of the enw policy and what is the comparison?

A state cabinet note said on Aug 2 that Rs 6720 crores came from VAT & license fee in 2021-22. The policy was implemented on Nov 17 last year but the note does not say what are the revenue accruals between Nov17 2021, and March 31 2022. So, there is no way of knowing how much revenue accrual was there for 2021-22 after the policy was implemented.

In 2020-21 the state revenue was Rs 7039 crores. In the first quarter of the financial year 22-23 i.e. for the 3 months between April 1^st and June 30^th (under the new policy) the revenue fell short of the budgeted estimates by 38% . And during this time the liquor sale has actually gone up by 59.46%.

As per the revenue accrued for 2020-21 (last FY) the quarterly revenue should have been at least  Rs 1760 crores. But the actual accrual was Rs 1485 crore. This is shortfall of Rs 275 crores in a single quarter compared to last year.

This drop was admitted by the Delhi government itself. The irony is this Rs 1485 crores also includes the refundable liquor deposit of Rs 980 crores by the vendors. So, the actual revenue for the Apr-Jun quarter was just Rs 505 crores ( Rs1485 crores- Rs 980 crores)

Delhi government claims that court relief to several liquor vends in license fees and also prohibition on opening shops in non-conforming areas by civic bodies led to this drop.  

But whatever the government may say, people do not stop taking liquor if it is available and the government cannot offer any explanation as to why the liquor revenues had gone down that drastically when its sale has actually gone up by 60%. The cost of liquor had not been brought down in Delhi after the new policy, and that actually means the benefit the state has lost has actually gone to the vendors. If this is not a scam, then none is. 

 

In its FIR filed on August 17 it accused Sameer Mahendru, the MD of Indospirit group of transferring Rs 1 crore into the bank account of Radha Industries owned by Dinesh Arora. Arora is a partner in 13 hospitality and entertainment companies.

The FIR also says that a person named Arjun Pandey has once collected a cash amount of Rs 2-4 crores from Sameer Mahendru on behalf of Vijay Nair.

Vijay Nair is associated with the AAP’s poll campaign and social media strategies and is the founder of Only Much Louder an event management company.

BJP claims Arjun Pandey is the CEO of the India Ahead News channel which was founded by Bhupendra Choubey. Choubey is married to AAP MLA Atishi’s sister.

Now look at that; Kakinada has a connection with this. The India Ahead News channel belongs to Andhra Prabha whose MD is none other than Mutha Gopalakrishna.

Rs 30 crores:

Puducherry based Pixie Enterprises (P) Ltd. won the license rights for 10 shops in the airport zone for Rs 240 crores. The airport authorities had a running agreement with Buddy Retail Pvt. Ltd owned by Amit Arora and Bhaskar Venisetty and therefore refused NOC to Pixie Enterprises.

The government later returned a deposit of Rs 30 crores to Pixie Enterprises which allegedly violated the excise rules. Sisodia said Buddy was granted the license after it matched Pixie’s offer.

A letter from the Chief Secretary of Delhi Naresh Kumar dated 06^th August and a report by the Directorate of intelligence, said the return violated the excise rules.

The Vigilance report said that excise officials on July 8 last year quoted an incorrect subs section from the rules to return the deposit. The relevant sub section mandates that if successful bidders fail to get approvals from the authorities, their deposit would be forfeited.

Rs 144 crores

The Delhi government imposed severe restrictions in December and January on account of Omicron. As the liquors ale dropped the vendors approached the government for license fee waiver. The government waived 24% of the license fee from Dec 28 to January 27. This resulted in a loss of Rs 144.36 crores to the Government.  

The accounts department pointed out that waiver cannot be more than the drop of sale which is 21.60% but the government did not pay heed.

And what was the defence of Excise officials to this? They say as a responsible government Delhi government provided a series of direct and indirect relief to the society of which this is one.

Rs 8000-10000 crore

This is merely a hocus pocus allegation by the BJP. But the Delhi government itself conceded that the revenue loss on account of the new policy for the first quarter of this year (Apr-Jun 22) is 37.51% and that is a huge loss to the state alright. Obviously the rates have been tampered in such a way to benefit the vendors in the new policy.

In January 2022, the government reduced the dry days from 23 last year to just 3 this year. The government also removed a levy of Rs 50 per case on beer.

GADI OF TELENGANA -MINIFORT OF THE DORAS

 

In Telengana, the Deshmukhs survived as local chiefs whose sphere of power often spread to a Paragana which consisted of 20 to 60 villages. They were primarily Revenue Collectors and when Magisterial and Judicial powers were added to their function, they have become Dehmukhs. Gradually their territory became a ‘Watan” or hereditary lease. No ruler at the top dared to tamper with this arrangement. The Deshmukhs presided over meetings known as the Got Sabha which decided and confirmed claims over inheritance, purchase and transfer of lands. The Deshmukhs could not be displaced easily from authority from above.

When the British arrived they made them revenue contractors. Some of the Deshmukhs became “Tahuddars” & “ Sarbasatadars. Now they only had the revenue recovery role for specific periods and were dispensed of the Magisterial and Judicial powers. The British had to fight at many places to bring the Deshmukhs under their rule.

The Aswaraopet Deshmukh for example occupied the “Gadi” a neat and strong structure of 1000 yards and maintained at his own expenses, a retinue of 100 peons (sepoys) besides a few horses. In Telengana payment of taxes in kind is prevalent which gave them a chance of taking the revenue in kind and paying cash to the state. This role enlarged their power and made them merchants and usurer’s restricting the local bania.

Due to usurious rates of interest the peasants started deserting their lands and Salarjung I created pro farmer policies. During the period of Salarjungs reforms, the Dehsmukhs got absorbed as landlords and the Deshmukh Watans were practically abolished and the farmers had Ryotwari tenure. In this process the Deshmukh became big landlords with ownership rights over their land. They were also allowed to lease the government land to bring not only deserted lands under cultivation, but also forest lands for conversion to cultivation. In return for these services, they again got more patta land for cultivation.

Large tracts of land in Telangana were thorn and bush and it required great labour and money to convert those lands into cultivable lands. Ordinary farmers had no means of doing this and the officials naturally preferred landlords who had the capital to do so. Thus the historical and ecological reasons did not allow the small peasant holdings in Telengana. There was abundant labour in Telengana which enabled the landlord class to make them serve and enlarge their holdings.

The group that helped the landlords in Telengana were the “ Patels” &  “Patwaris”. The Patel could belong to any caste and undertook police duties, but Patwari is always a Niyogi Brahmin and undertook revenue duties. They too lived in big bulglows in the fashion of Deshmukhs and were served by many servants. The Patwaris were essentially considered as mischievous and dishonest and known for promoting conspiracies in villages.  

The landlords and the officials were at loggerheads but when it came to subduing the population and exploiting them, they became one.

The 3^rd group in the village hierarchy are the “Kapus” “Pedda Rytus” or “Pedda Kapus” (they can be of any caste) who are the village landholders with patta rights and had considerable size of landholdings. They became a separate group and distanced themselves from the lower caste Sudras. These guys lived in big type pucca houses, had enough cattle, stocks of grain and agricultural instruments. They dressed like peasants but were educated, but not educated enough to know the ways of the government laws etc. They also did not know Urdu. But they lived with a lot of prestige in the village. They collaborated with the Dora efforts in enforcing caste based labor exploitation.  

The Doras in the process have taken over the authority of the state and kept the whole countryside in their possession. The word Dora in Telengana does not denote Velamas as we believe. Any upper caste person with land, money, ruthlessness and their proximity to local government officials is a Dora. There were Reddy’s, Velama’s and some Brahmins and Muslims were Doras in Telengana.

There was tremendous exploitation of the lower castes by the Doras. In some cases even wearing a shirt by a farmer was punished.

The most notorious Dora families of Nalgonda and Warangal districts were Rapaka or Visnur, Janna Reddy, Nukala Ramasahayam, Pingali and Lingala. Their authority spread over a Paragana. The Dora families increased from the last quarter of the 19^th century through acquisition of lands and through ruthless exploitation.

The later Dora families were Kundur, Nayani, Kondur, Katukuru, Pushkuri, Karhar, Kallur, Tadikamalla, Akkiraju, Boinapalli, Gaddam, Gandra and Bandi. By the time of Telengana People’s struggle for Independence almost every village had a Dora. In almost every village and sometimes in a group of hamlets could be found a palatial Gadi. A huge fort like house with wide compound enclosed by a wall with tall gates where the Dora lived with his family members. It also had his dasis and their children. The Dora is served by a large number of Vetti chakiri workers.

The Doras also assumed magisterial powers and exercised them. Although the Patwari controlled the Police, the Doras supervised him. This was not granted by any government but got by virtue of their money and prestige. The Dora’s also started maintaining records of all the activities in the village.

Those landlords by establishing control over Government property (usurped and not given) controlled village resources, and people’s activity were elevated to Doras. All the Poramboku lands in the village were controlled by the Doras.

The Dora’s had usurped the right of enforcing the law and delivering judgments. In the settlement of disputes, the Dora’s authority was unchallenged. In any other village dispute, the Dora’s order is final. It is surprising to see that all these powers were appropriated by the Dora’s without being granted by the state. The Dora’s language, tone and behaviour was infused with arrogance, authority and abuse in order to impose his decisions on the people. Beating, tying the hands behind, and hanging from a branch of the tree became customary and commonplace. The very thought of Gadi evoked terror in the rural masses. A labourer cannot stand erect in presence of the Dora. He has to bend and talk.

The labourers were not permitted to wear a shirt, talapaga, tilak or chappals. When the Dora goes out from the Gadi, people have to bow their heads and move to the side to give way. Women had to run into their houses.

As you can see, these systems are entirely different from what the Jamindars employed in Andhra area. The Jamindars were granted right to collect revenue by the Government but this they rarely did with any oppression.  Also the people of the Andhra area under the British were not as rigidly feudal as the people of Telengana were then.

This peasant oppression by the Doras in Telengana was the highest in India compared to any other state. On account of this finally on 4^th July 1946 when a peasant leader was killed by the men of a Dora in Warangal district, a revolution broke out. Beginning in the districts of Nalgonda and Warangal, the rebellion became a revolution all over Telangana. This was aggravated by the activities of the Nizam and Kasim Rizvi and the Razakars. The peasants then turned to communism and at one point 4000 villages of Telangana had communes. As a result of this, all the Doras had to run away to Hyderabad. Ultimately, the Indian army after taking over Telangana attacked the communes and overpowered them.