#indian army benefits

[bravo4iscool]

Hii, this this the person talkin about chubbier Simon! Give me a sec and let me set the stage for you,

Simon Riley x 141!reader whos on military leave to cope after a particularly hard mission. Reader finds a way of coping and expressing their love to simon through the art of cooking for him constantly. (i come from largely a guyanese and indian family so everyday theres always good food on the table) So we all know this man can eat ALOT (he needs to maintain his girlish figure after all😌lmao) So i can just IMAGINE him eating all the stews, curries, roti and rice (or whatever culture/country reader comes from)he can get his hands on! He would have such an appreciation for food from working in the military so long and having limited food he could eat. So going from a man of pure slabs of muscle to slabs of muscle but WITH softer abs he gets a little self conscious but he sees the benifits that hes getting alot with a great meal everyday and how his reader ogles him everyday hes starts to like the change. (Theres actually more benefits for having muscle and fat than just pure muscle!! When you see bodybuilders with just pure muscle the muscles in their whole body are constricted causing cramps and alot more muscle pulling in day to day life compared to heavy weight lifters who many not look as muscular but can lift much more while still having a strong core and overall more power)

Sorry to ramble and run but this has been rattling my brain. Have a great day and remember to drink water♡

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS OMG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK!!! i‘m sorry i wasn’t able to answer it any sooner, i‘m in my last three weeks of school and it‘s kinda stressful🥲. i hope you can understand…

as someone who is russian-german i totally understand the whole food thing😭 (thats why reader will be russian-german lol. it‘s the only culture i really know about the food and all that (at least i think i know about the food🧍🏼). also, i do not know the english names of the food so i‘ll be using the terms i know.)

i hope you like this!!

(masterlist)

REQUESTS/ASKS OPEN!!!

„y‘cooking too good f‘me,“ simon mumbles as he puts his arms around your waist and pulls you into his chest. „‘m loosing all my muscles.“

you chuckle and turn your head to look at him. „that‘s not true! you‘re just developing a little more fluff.“ you smile and turn again to focus on the food you‘re preparing. „besides having muscles with a layer of fat is way healthier than just muscles.“ you can feel simon nod with his head rested on yours.

„what‘re y‘makin‘?“

„pelmeni,“ you answer, skilfully sticking the dough together so the meat would stay inside while you cook them. „i haven‘t made them for you till now.“

simon lowers his head so it‘s beside yours and examines the dough and meat in front of you. „thought we a’ready had ‘em two weeks ago?“

you shake your head and lick your bottom lip, trying to concentrate. „that were manti simon. they are made like…mochis. pelmeni are cooked in water.“

simon doesn‘t say anything and buries his nose in your neck. „t‘boys will laugh a‘me when we return,“ he mumbles as his lips ghost over your skin to leave little kisses.

„they won‘t,“ you protest and slightly slap his arm. „if anything they will be jealous!“ you dust your hands off and turn around in his arms. he looks at you and you start to frown. „you are not…insecure, are you?“ when simon just blinks at you without answering you take his face into your hands.

„you, simon riley, do not need to be insecure because you’re eating good. you’re not getting fat or losing muscles. if anything, you’re only getting healthier because the army food is total garbage and you’re finally getting some real food,“ you try to explain, withstanding his gaze the whole time. „don‘t beat yourself up over stuff like this.“ your voice is gentle as you caress his scarred face with your thumbs. „you deserve something good life. let me be that something.“

silence follows after you‘re done talking and you could swear you saw a tear in simon‘s eye but then he blinks and it is gone. „i don‘t deserve ya,“ he whispers, pulling you close again. „i don‘t deserve ya…“

„oh, but you do,“ you smile as you pull him down to press a gentle kiss on his lips. „you do deserve me and you also deserve my food.“ you put your arms around his waist and hug him. he does the same, keeping you close to him. he rests his head on yours and closes his eyes. he just wants to savour this moment…

[dosesofcommonsense]

This is long, but it’s well worth your time.

This might piss some of you off. To that matter, I don’t care. This should make you angry, though it should make you angry at our government and not me. I’m just pointing out the truth and some relating history.

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

Article 1, Section 8

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

--

Note: The duties of Congress do not entail any gift giving or foreign donations.

--

Story Time

https://fee.org/resources/not-your-to-give/

[The following story about the famed American icon Davy Crockett was published in Harper’s Magazine in 1867, as written by James J. Bethune, a pseudonym used by Edward S. Ellis. The events that are recounted here are true, including Crockett’s opposition to the bill in question, though the precise rendering and some of the detail are fictional.]

One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Davy Crockett arose:

“Mr. Speaker–I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him.

Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week’s pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:

“Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown . It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made homeless, and, besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.

“The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly.

“I began: ‘Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and–’

“‘Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett, I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.’

“This was a sockdolager . . . I begged him to tell me what was the matter.

“‘Well, Colonel, it is hardly worth-while to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest. . . . But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.’

“‘I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.’

“‘No, Colonel, there’s no mistake. Though I live here in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown . Is that true?’

“‘Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.’

“‘It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown , neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week’s pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington , no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.

“‘So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.’

“I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

“‘Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.’

“He laughingly replied: ‘Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.’

“‘If I don’t,’ said I, ‘I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.’

“‘No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. This is Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.’

“‘Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.’

“‘My name is Bunce.’

“‘Not Horatio Bunce?’

“‘Yes.’

“‘Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.’

“It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.

“At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had every seen manifested before.

“Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.

“I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him–no, that is not the word–I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.

“But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted–at least, they all knew me.

“In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:

“‘Fellow-citizens–I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.’

“I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

“‘And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

“‘It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.’

“He came upon the stand and said:

“‘Fellow-citizens–It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.’

“He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.

“I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.

“Now, sir,” concluded Crockett, “you know why I made that speech yesterday.

“There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week’s pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men–men who think nothing of spending a week’s pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased–a debt which could not be paid by money–and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighted against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.”

Holders of political office are but reflections of the dominant leadership–good or bad–among the electorate.

Horatio Bunce is a striking example of responsible citizenship. Were his kind to multiply, we would see many new faces in public office; or, as in the case of Davy Crockett, a new Crockett.

For either the new faces or the new Crocketts, we must look to the Horatio in ourselves!

--

Why does it matter?

https://foreignassistance.gov/

In 2024 alone, the US has “given” $23 BILLION in US Taxpayer money to 203 countries through 11,000+/- “activities”. The US Constitution does NOT allow for any of this money to be handed out.

Additionally, as much as this might chafe, Congress (and all the departmental budgets) are not supposed to dole out money to natural disaster areas. Those areas are supposed to be handled from a private money or private sector restoration perspective. The US government’s job is the infrastructure (roads, bridges, highways, power, etc) to those impacted areas.

--

If you’re mad as hell about the US government saying all these foreign aid projects are more important than anything related to the protection and safety of our country and its citizenry, then your anger is directed in the right direction. Congress’s job and loyalties are supposed to be directed inward; our country is supposed to be their priority. That our country isn’t their priority is treasonous and grounds for impeachment – the whole lot of them.

BUT, as much as we all want to help our fellow citizens in FL, NC, TN, and HI (Maui fires), that’s not the job of the federal government. They’re not doling out “fed funds”; they’re doling out our Taxes that should be going to any number of things including paying off our debts.

It might sound callous in lieu of the recent hurricane and the one coming, but there’s always a tragedy occurring somewhere whether it’s on the news or not. So, by those events, there’s never a good time. That makes now as good a time as any and maybe better than average since everyone is aware of how corrupt and treasonous our current “leadership” has been. Knowing their allegiance is to anyone not an American, now is the opportune time to turn the light back on Constitutional truth and reeducate people regarding the stated duties of Congress.

[infiniteglitterfall]

Hamza Howidy just posted, "Can we, for God's sake, stop using this shity talking point of "it didn't start on October 7th"? These attempts to open a back door to "justify" the atrocities that took place on that date are as disgusting as the atrocities themselves.

"If we expect others to sympathize with our suffering, we must equally acknowledge theirs, rather than try to erase it."

I'm just suddenly very struck by this.

Like, let's assume Amnesty International's historical narrative here is perfectly accurate and valid.

It's still the wildest possible argument for us to be using in the U.S.

My entire STATE committed its own genocide.

Our country ACTIVELY KIDNAPPED AND ENSLAVED people from a whole other continent for most of the time that it was forcing everyone here off their land.

Slavery was a cornerstone of the economy in the Northeast. Even after it became illegal there:

Shipbuilders, sailors, corkers, sailmakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, stevedores were all employed by the West Indian and Atlantic slave trades. Coopers made barrels that stored the rum which was exchanged for enslaved people, who were sold throughout the Americas. Clerks, scribes and warehouse overseers conducted the business of the trade. Outfitting even the smallest ship required a small army of tradesmen.

African slave-trading voyages also required additional crew to control and manage the human captives, usually twice as many than a commodity’s trade. Merchants, many of whom were slave traders, paid significant taxes to the cities for public works. For example, the duties collected on the purchase and sale of enslaved people in Rhode Island were used to pave the streets of Newport. So whether or not you owned a slave, you benefited from the business of slavery.

Our country's history is far worse than anything Israel is even capable of.

Like. Do we REALLY want to be ACTIVELY SAYING that if a people was displaced and oppressed, the appropriate response -- or to many people, the only possible response -- is for them to try to kill everyone around them? To mutilate and burn and blow up everyone they can reach?

Not even the government. Not after making a demand or a threat. To focus on civilians.

To booby-trap their dead bodies in order to kill first responders too. To -- everything Hamas did.

We're just gonna hope no one here has both the desire and the technology?

[littlefeather-wolf]

Fool Thunder and family. Hunkpapa Lakota. 1880 ❤

The Hunkpapa (Lakota: Húŋkpapȟa) are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle" (at one time, the tribe's name was represented in European-American records as Honkpapa). By tradition, the Húŋkpapȟa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakȟóta, one of the three dialects of the Sioux language.

Seven hundred and fifty mounted Yankton, Yanktonai and Lakota joined six companies of the Sixth Infantry and 80 fur trappers in an attack on an Arikara Indian village at Grand River (now South Dakota) in August 1823, named the Arikara War. Members of the Lakota, a part of them "Ankpapat", were the first Native Americans to fight in the American Indian Wars alongside US forces west of the Missouri.

They may have formed as a tribe within the Lakota relatively recently, as the first mention of the Hunkpapa in European-American historical records was from a treaty of 1825.

By signing the 1825 treaty, the Hunkpapa and the United States committed themselves to keep up the "friendship which has heretofore existed". With their x-mark, the chiefs also recognized the supremacy of the United States. It is not certain whether they really understood the text in the document. The US representatives gave a medal to Little White Bear, who they understood was the principal Hunkpapa chief; they did not realize how decentralized Native American authority was.

With the Indian Vaccination Act of 1832, the United States assumed responsibility for the inoculation of the Indians against smallpox. Some visiting Hunkpapa may have benefitted from Dr. M. Martin's vaccination of about 900 southern Lakota (no divisions named) at the head of Medicine Creek that autumn. When smallpox struck in 1837, it hit the Hunkpapa as the northernmost Lakota division. The loss, however, may have been fewer than one hundred people.Overall, the Hunkpapa seem to have suffered less from new diseases than many other tribes did.

The boundaries for the Lakota Indian territory were defined in the general peace treaty negotiated near Fort Laramie in the summer of 1851. Leaders of eight different tribes, often at odds with each other and each claiming large territories, signed the treaty. The United States was a ninth party to it. The Crow Indian territory included a tract of land north of the Yellowstone, while the Little Bighorn River ran through the heartland of the Crow country (now Montana). The treaty defines the land of the Arikara, the Hidatsa and the Mandan as a mutual area north of Heart River, partly encircled by the Missouri (now North Dakota).

Soon enough the Hunkpapa and other Sioux attacked the Arikara and the two other so-called village tribes, just as they had done in the past. By 1854, these three smallpox-devastated tribes called for protection from the U.S. Army, and they would repeatedly do so almost to the end of inter-tribal warfare. Eventually the Hunkpapa and other Lakota took control of the three tribes' area north of Heart River, forcing the village people to live in Like a Fishhook Village outside their treaty land. The Lakota were largely in control of the occupied area to 1876–1877.

The United States Army General Warren estimated the population of the Hunkpapa Lakota at about 2920 in 1855. He described their territory as ranging "from the Big Cheyenne up to the Yellowstone, and west to the Black Hills. He states that they formerly intermarried extensively with the Cheyenne." He noted that they raided settlers along the Platte River In addition to dealing with warfare, they suffered considerable losses due to contact with Europeans and contracting of Eurasian infectious diseases to which they had no immunity.

The Hunkpapa gave some of their remote relatives among the Santee Sioux armed support during a large-scale battle near Killdeer Mountain in 1864 with U.S. troops led by General A. Sully.

The Great Sioux Reservation was established with a new treaty in 1868. The Lakota agreed to the construction of "any railroad" outside their reservation. The United States recognized that "the country north of the North Platte River and east of the summits of the Big Horn Mountains" was unsold or unceded Indian territory. These hunting grounds in the south and in the west of the new Lakota domain were used mainly by the Sicangu (Brule-Sioux) and the Oglala, living nearby.

The "free bands" of Hunkpapa favored campsites outside the unsold areas. They took a leading part in the westward enlargement of the range used by the Lakota in the late 1860s and the early 1870s at the expense of other tribes. In search for buffalo, Lakota regularly occupied the eastern part of the Crow Indian Reservation as far west as the Bighorn River, sometimes even raiding the Crow Agency, as they did in 1873. The Lakota pressed the Crow Indians to the point that they reacted like other small tribes: they called for the U.S. Army to intervene and take actions against the intruders.

In the late summer of 1873, the Hunkpapa boldly attacked the Seventh Cavalry in United States territory north of the Yellowstone. Custer's troops escorted a railroad surveying party here, due to similar attacks the year before. Battles such as Honsinger Bluff and Pease Bottom took place on land purchased by the United States from the Crow tribe on May 7, 1868.These continual attacks, and complaints from American Natives, prompted the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to assess the full situation on the northern plains. He said that the unfriendly Lakota roaming the land of other people should "be forced by the military to come in to the Great Sioux Reservation". That was in 1873, notably one year before the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, but the US government did not take action on this concept until three years later.

The Hunkpapa were among the victors in the Battle of Little Bighorn in the Crow Indian Reservation in July 1876.

Since the 1880s, most Hunkpapa have lived in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation (in North and South Dakota). It comprises land along the Grand River which had been used by the Arikara Indians in 1823; the Hunkpapa "won the west" half a century before the whites.

During the 1870s, when the Native Americans of the Great Plains were fighting the United States, the Hunkpapa were led by Sitting Bull in the fighting, together with the Oglala Lakota. They were among the last of the tribes to go to the reservations. By 1891, the majority of Hunkpapa Lakota, about 571 people, resided in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation of North and South Dakota ...

Since then they have not been counted separately from the rest of the Lakota ...

[wachinyeya]

https://ictnews.org/news/biden-designates-avi-kwa-ame-a-national-monument

Joe Biden designates Avi Kwa Ame a national monument

President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument in Nevada, following up on a promise he made in late 2022.

Biden also declared a national monument in Texas and the creation of a marine sanctuary in U.S. waters near the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawai'i.

Biden spoke at the White House Conservation in Action Summit at the Interior Department with Fort Mojave Indian Tribal Chairman Timothy Williams commending him during his introduction.

“Under his leadership we have a seat at the table and we are seeing an unprecedented era and opportunity for our tribal communities,” Williams said. “And we are all grateful to the president for taking historic action to combat the climate crisis and conserve and restore our nation’s land and waters.”

Williams was among the proponents to make Avi Kwa Ame, also known as Spirit Mountain, a national monument. It’s considered sacred to the Mojave people and for the nine other Yuman-speaking tribes along the Colorado River, as well as the Hopi and Chemehuevi Paiute tribes, Williams said.

The site in southern Nevada spans more than 500,000 acres near the Arizona and California state lines. It’s home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and a large concentration of Joshua trees, some of which are more than 900 years old. It’s also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It took more than three months for Biden to make the announcement.

“It’s a place of reverence, it’s a place of spirituality, it’s a place of healing and now it will be recognized for its significance it holds and be preserved forever,” Biden said. “I look forward to visiting it myself.”

He thanked Williams and the legislative leaders who advocated for Avi Kwa Ame including Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, Democrat, who sponsored a bill to protect the rugged region near the Mojave National Preserve from development, including solar farms and a proposed wind farm.

“To the native people who point to Avi Kwa Ame as their spiritual birthplace, and every Nevadan who knows the value of our cherished public lands: Today is for you,″ Titus tweeted.

The Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition, which includes tribes, local residents, state lawmakers and conservation groups, said its members were "overjoyed" to learn the site will be a new national monument.

"Together, we will honor Avi Kwa Ame today — from its rich Indigenous history, to its vast and diverse plant and wildlife, to the outdoor recreation opportunities created for local cities and towns in southern Nevada by a new gorgeous monument right in their backyard," the group said.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released a press release praising the announcement.

“I am grateful to President Biden for taking this important step in recognition of the decades of advocacy from tribes and the scientific community, who are eager to protect the objects within its boundaries,” Haaland stated.“Together with tribal leaders, outdoor enthusiasts, local elected officials, and other stakeholders, we will manage this new monument for the benefit of current and future generations.”

In Texas, Biden plans to create the Castner Range National Monument in El Paso. It’s the ancestral homeland of the Comanche and Apache people, and its cultural ecology is considered sacred to several Indigenous communities.

The designation will protect the cultural, scientific and historic objects found within the monument's boundaries, honor U.S. veterans, service members and tribal nations, and expand access to outdoor recreation on public lands, the White House said.

Located on Fort Bliss, Castner Range served as a training and testing site for the U.S. Army during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The Army ceased training at the site and closed Castner Range in 1966.

The Castner Range monument "will preserve fragile lands already surrounded on three sides by development,'' help ensure access to clean water and protect rare and endangered species, said Rep. Veronica Escobar, Democrat-Texas.

“The people of El Paso have fought to protect this for 50 years. Their work has finally paid off,” Biden said.

Biden designated his first national monument, in Colorado, last year. In 2021, he restored the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument in Utah after they were significantly narrowed by President Donald Trump, a Republican.

In the Pacific, Biden will direct the Commerce Department to consider initiating a new national marine sanctuary designation within 30 days to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands. If completed, the 777,000 square miles, southwest of Hawaii, will help ensure the U.S. reaches Biden's goal to conserve at least 30 percent of ocean waters under U.S. jurisdiction by 2030, the White House said.

Among Hawaiian state leaders, Biden thanked Native Hawaiian leaders who “worked tirelessly to protect our oceans. I want to thank you. I genuinely mean it, it wouldn't have happened without you.”

Biden also announced a series of steps to conserve, restore and expand access to public lands and waters across the country, the White House said.

The proposals seek to modernize management of America's public lands, harness the power of the ocean to help fight climate change, and better conserve wildlife corridors. Biden also will announce new spending to improve access to outdoor recreation, promote tribal conservation and reduce wildfire risk.

Bidden added he’s committed to working with tribal leaders and legislative leaders on bringing “healthy and abundant” salmon run back to the Colorado River system.

“There’s nothing beyond our capacity if we work together,” Biden said.

[lyledebeast]

Two Bens

Over Thanksgiving break, I spent a lot of time thinking about Turn, as one does, and it's brought me back to a post I started a while ago and never finished. A lot of interesting contrasts between Turn and the American Revolution story I am obsessed with in all seasons can be uncovered just by looking at the two protagonists who happen to share the same Christian name. While The Patriot's Benjamin Martin is presented as flawed but ultimately heroic because he's a God-fearin', gun-totin; American (even if he's not much else) Turn's Benjamin Tallmadge represents an attempt to make 18th C Patriots appealing to an audience that may not always already support them because of their political views.

Young, idealistic, and the son of a disillusioned French and Indian War veteran, Ben Tallmadge has more in common with Ben Martin's son, Gabriel, than with the man himself. But Gabriel, despite his angelic name, succumbs to the brutal nature of war in a way that Tallmadge never does. Tallmadge's idealism is challenged not by British actions but by American ones. He provides both the perspective from which the audience sees infighting among the Continental officers and hears the Loyalist side of things. Initially, Tallmadge cannot see how any American could support the British over the army fighting for their independence, but then he speaks to Reverand Worthington (before he shoots him, a task about which he, as a preacher's son, feels deeply conflicted). And then he has an affair with a widow who turns out to be a Loyalist. When she points out that the George taking food out of her and her child's mouths is not the one on the British throne, Tallmadge initially tries to argue with her. Then he remembers Washington's orders. Armies terrorizing civilians has consequences, even if that army claims to be fighting for freedom. Who knew?

Season three is a time of great transformation for Tallmadge. He learns from these experiences with Worthington and Sarah that Loyalists are not always entirely in the wrong and that Patriots sometimes are. It is a lesson that takes hold, as we see in his bonding with John Andre prior to the latter's execution. Tallmadge can see, now, that the similarities they share outweigh their differences, even as he also never falters in his commitment to independence. There is a nuance in Tallmadge's views of the British and their supporters that is completely foreign to Martin and all of the Patriots in the movie named for them.

While Turn acknowledges that there are good British officers as well as wicked ones--and that the same is true of Americans--The Patriot presents similar actions committed by the two sides in wildly different ways. "Sir, we're not slaves. We work this land as free men," says a man taken from his job in the fields and enlisted as an orderly on his employer's whim. Martin benefits from being part of a culture where Black people cannot safely refuse orders from White people whether he owns slaves or not, as we also see when he deposits his family with the Maroons after the British burn them out of yet another house. We see no words exchanged between Martin and any of the Maroons, but it is hard to imagine that their agreement has more to do with him not owning his housekeeper Abigale, who is now among them, than with a heavily armed militia being difficult to say no to. But Colonel Tavington forcibly enlisting Black men into the British Army? Awful. Terrible. Call the ACLU.

Another great example of nuance, who is she? comes when General Cornwallis accuses Martin, whose militia have been using British officers as target practice, of not engaging in gentlemanly conduct. "If the conduct of your officers is that of a gentlemen, then I take that as a compliment," says Martin, whose past gentlemanly activities include cutting enemies to pieces while they were still alive and then sending those pieces to their loved ones and, more recently, standing idly by as his men executed surrendering British soldiers. Clearly, these kinds of gentlemen are completely different animals.

In Turn, Tallmadge serves as our guide to perspectives that are patriotic (with big "p"s and small), loyal to the crown, idealist and cynical. There is vastly more effort in Turn than in The Patriot to represent the diversity that existed in Colonial American with one notable exception. Over the series four seasons, we meet exactly two indigenous people: a Queen's Ranger under Robert Rogers and a scout who works with Caleb Brewster aiding the Continental Army. Both vanish after a couple of episodes and are never heard from again. Their inclusion tells us that indigenous people existed during the American Revolution and offered aid to both sides, but not much else. The Patriot, meanwhile, is full of allusions to colonial genocide against the Cherokees hiding in plain sight. It evokes the memory of a Cherokee past in South Carolina every time Martin's tomahawk makes an appearance, not to mention the scalp bounties Rollins inquires about or the "little while" Martin tells us passed between the atrocities at Fort Wilderness and the Cherokees breaking their treaty with the French. The Cherokees were there; then they were gone. it doesn't take a history degree to understand what happened.

Turn represents a diversity of perspectives, but ultimately, the Patriots are still the heroes. The hypocrisy of people who stole Native land and enslaved African people complaining about the British violation of their "inalienable rights" is downplayed to make the main characters more palatable. The Patriot, meanwhile, gives us characters who are unabashedly irate at being treated by the British with less brutality than they visited on their Cherokee neighbors a few years earlier (while donning their own red coats!) But for all its numerous inaccuracies, I think The Patriot captures something true about how Patriots, especially in South Carolina, must have seen themselves. What kind of sanctimonious thugs claimed to be fighting for freedom from tyranny and violence when what they actually wanted was the freedom to not share the profits of their own tyranny and violence with the British empire? Of course, there ware Patriots with loftier and more sincerely held beliefs about liberty, independence, and human rights, like Ben Tallmadge. But considering the way Black and Native people continued to be treated in the new nation, it is clear the sanctimonious thugs prevailed all too often.

[someoneintheshadow456]

Hi! I recently found your blog, and I've seen some posts you've made/reblogged a long while ago about the political situation in India, like with the situation in Kashmir. I've recently seen some people say India is "brutally colonizing Kashmir" and other such things. I understand that this is a topic that is not being discussed at the moment, but some posts along these lines are quite recent and I wanted to know your thoughts on the Kashmir situation and these arguments, if that is okay with you.

It's the other way around. Kashmir is being brutally colonized by Pakistan.

Kashmir was originally a 60/40 distribution between religions (with Muslims having slight majority), and was ruled by a Hindu king. There was supposed to be a ruling to decide the fate of Kashmir in the 90s, however a mass genocide of the Hindu population in the area and an invasion by Pakistan happened before the ruling could even take place. In short - whatever the people of Kashmir wanted - Pakistan decided to ignore it and make the decision for them.

If you look at Kashmir's religious demographics, you will see the Hindu population suddenly rapidly drop in the 90s (to the point where less than 10% of the population is Hindu today) and most people will refuse to tell you why that happened, or brush it off as "migration." Many people will even justify the genocide by saying that Kashmiri Hindus were the "rich oppressors" and "had it coming" - the same reasons used to persecute Jewish people in Nazi Germany.

Kashmiri Hindus in India to this day live in horrible conditions because the government knows if they do anything to actually improve their situation beyond offering platitudes, fundamentalist Muslim groups will riot. In fact, most Kashmiri Hindus feel that it would be safer for the government not to notice them at all, because when they do, hate crimes against them increase.

Until very recently in Kashmir, only Sunni Muslim men had the right to vote and own property. When homosexuality was legalized in India, this applied to every state but Kashmir. Most laws relating to women's rights, domestic violence, child rights, etc did not apply there. It wasn't even a state for all Muslims - it was a state to benefit a very small pool of upper caste Sunni men in power.

When Kashmir went from being a special territory to statehood, the ones who were rioting were these upper caste rich Sunni men who were salty that they wouldn't be the only ones with exclusive rights anymore. And sure enough, after this ruling, hate crimes against the Kashmiri Hindu community rose.

Whenever you hear of the Indian army committing atrocities in Kashmir - it's usually tales of the Indian army retaliating against Pakistan-sponsored terror in the region, or cases when terrorists deliberately put their own people in danger and pin the blame on the army.

This video by Middle Ground (and the comments provide more information) will help you to understand the situation better. In it, the Kashmiri Hindu was the only one who had a loved one die because of the conflict (his father was killed when he was 15). And he was dismissed/mocked by the conservative Muslim speakers while the moderate Muslim speaker sympathised with him.

[usafphantom2]

India informs France of its decision to acquire 26 Rafale Marine jets

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/11/2023 - 09:00 in Military

India formally communicated to France its decision to acquire 26 naval variants of the Rafale fighter for the Indian Navy, starting the acquisition process under an intergovernmental structure, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

In July, the Ministry of Defense approved the purchase of Rafale Marine jets from France, mainly for deployment on board the locally built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

The issue of the acquisition of the Rafale Marine jets figured during the recent visit of the Minister of Defense, Rajnath Singh, to Paris.

India sent a letter of requisition to the French government, formally communicating its decision to acquire Dassault Aviation jets under the government-to-government structure.

Negotiations on prices and other details are expected to take place after the Ministry of Defense receives a response from the French side, people familiar with the matter said.

Earlier this month, the president and CEO of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, visited New Delhi and discussed various aspects of the proposed acquisition by India.

The Ministry of Defense said in July that the acquisition of the jets along with associated auxiliary equipment, including weapons systems and spare parts, would be based on an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and that the price and other terms of purchase will be negotiated with the French government after taking into account all relevant aspects.

The Indian Air Force bought 36 aircraft in flight conditions. There is an opinion in the IAF that it should opt for at least two more Rafale jet squadrons.

Defense and strategic ties between India and France have increased in recent years.

In July, India and France announced a series of innovative defense cooperation projects, including the joint development of jet engines and helicopters and the construction of three Scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy.

The two strategic partners also expressed a commitment to cooperate in the co-development and co-production of advanced defense technologies, including for the benefit of third countries.

Source: PTI

Tags: Military AviationDassault AviationDassault Rafale MIndian Navy

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[marxism-transgenderism]

When he [George Washington] was seventeen, the Ohio Company of Virginia wrote a petition to the Crown asking for a grant of 500,000 acres west of the Allegheny Mountains. Blue Jacket and Little Turtle were small children when that petition was made. So was Richard Butler; he was still in Ireland. And yet events culminating that November morning, when Butler died and the confederation led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket triumphed, began in the Ohio Company’s petition, along with a host of related American efforts to develop land west of the Appalachians.

The idea the petition expressed was new. The Ohio Company wanted lands across the Alleghenies, it told the king, in order to serve him patriotically by settling the region with loyal English subjects in an orderly process. Authorized settlement would put an end to the disorganized, extralegal squatting that had been going on out there for some time and serve, the petitioners argued, two related purposes. One was to perpetuate the British fur trade with the Indians, bringing peltry in large volume more easily eastward on waterways that might, the petitioners dared to hope, flow ultimately into their own Potomac River. The company had already planned a new town for that purpose at the navigable head of the Potomac, possibly to be called Alexandria.

The other major rationale for allowing settlement in what the English and their colonists and traders called the Ohio Country was to block French fur traders and military personnel now operating there. Virginia petitioners alleged that the French trade had been encroaching illegally on the Ohio Country: French presence had recently been felt around the point where the Monongahela and the Allegheny Rivers converged to form the southwest-flowing Ohio River, roadway to the West. The British Crown had an incontestable claim to that land, the petition stated, and Virginia, under its charter from the Crown, did too. Indeed, Virginia’s charter gave the province sea-to-sea rights to most of North America, from the Atlantic Seaboard all the way to the Pacific, however far that might turn out to be; nobody in Virginia knew. According to the Ohio Company petitioners, French violation both of Virginia’s and of the king’s rights west of the Alleghenies could be stopped only by the formation, under a British Crown grant, of a trading company supported by settlement there.

The Ohio Company was thus emphasizing, in seeking a massive land grant across the mountains, the benefits to the Crown of enabling British trade westward and blocking French incursion eastward. The way they spun it, allowing western settlement was a means to those ends.

But while it was true that the company began in large part as a trading effort, not solely as a land speculation, the Virginians were planters, and the size of the grants the company was asking for reflected aims having little to do with either furs or defense. The real attraction of the great forest across the Appalachians, north and south of the Ohio River, lay less in taking the beaver that lived there, or obstructing the French from doing so, than in the quality of that forest itself. The mightiness of the timber, never before cut, and the lushness of the bottomland vegetation had revealed to trappers and traders who ranged in that country the astonishing fertility of western soil.

Fertility, for these Virginians, was the ultimate resource. The most important crop they planted required new land, and then more new land, and then more, in perpetuity. They were tobacco men.

— William Hogeland, Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion that Opened the West

[manasastuff-blog]

Introduction

Embarking on a career in the Indian Navy after graduation is a commendable choice, and the right training can make all the difference. Manasa Defence Academy stands out as a beacon of excellence, providing top-notch coaching for NDA, Navy, Army, Airforce, SSC, Coast Guard, and various central government jobs. Let's explore the unparalleled offerings of this academy, nestled in the heart of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

Courses Offered by Manasa Defence Academy

NDA Training

Manasa Defence Academy specializes in National Defence Academy (NDA) training, laying a strong foundation for aspirants aiming to join the armed forces.

Comprehensive Military Training

Beyond NDA, the academy excels in providing coaching for the Navy, Army, Airforce, SSC, Coast Guard, and other central government job exams.

Top-Quality Facilities

Physical Fitness Training by Retired Army Officer

The academy ensures the physical fitness of its cadets through training led by a retired Army officer, fostering discipline and resilience.

State-of-the-Art Facilities

From a well-equipped gym to yoga and swimming facilities, the academy offers a holistic approach to physical well-being.

Written Exam Preparation

Cadets receive comprehensive guidance for written exams, ensuring they are well-prepared for the challenges ahead.

SSB Interviews and Personality Development

Cracking the SSB Code

Understanding the importance of SSB interviews, Manasa Defence Academy provides specialized training to enhance candidates' personality and communication skills.

Language Skills

The academy focuses on developing English and Hindi speaking skills, a crucial aspect for success in defense-related interviews and examinations.

Group Discussions and Stage Speech Training

Cadets are groomed in the art of group discussions and stage speeches, instilling confidence and eloquence.

Fee Structure and Accessibility

Affordable Fee Structure

Manasa Defence Academy believes in making quality training accessible, offering an affordable fee structure for students from diverse backgrounds.

Continuing Higher Studies

The academy recognizes the importance of education and allows cadets to continue their higher studies after 10th, providing a seamless academic journey.

Location

Visakhapatnam: The Ideal Setting

Situated in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, the academy benefits from a strategic location, providing an ideal environment for focused training.

Advantages of the Location

Proximity to defense establishments and a conducive atmosphere for learning make Visakhapatnam an optimal location for Manasa Defence Academy.

Success Stories

Real-Life Achievements

The academy boasts numerous success stories of alumni who have excelled in various defense and government job roles.

Achievements in Defense and Government Jobs

Graduates of Manasa Defence Academy have made their mark, contributing to the nation's defense and securing coveted government positions.

Why Choose Manasa Defence Academy?

Testimonials Speak Louder

Current and former cadets vouch for the academy's effectiveness, citing personalized attention and a supportive learning environment.

Unique Selling Points

Manasa Defence Academy stands out with its dedicated faculty, practical training modules, and a commitment to producing successful candidates.

Commitment to Excellence

The academy is dedicated to excellence, continuously adapting its training methodologies to align with evolving examination patterns.

Conclusion

In the pursuit of a career in the Indian Navy or other defense sectors, choosing the right training institute is pivotal. Manasa Defence Academy not only imparts knowledge but also molds individuals into confident and disciplined professionals. As you embark on this journey, remember that the right training can transform aspirations into reality.

FAQs

How long is the training at Manasa Defence Academy?

Manasa Defence Academy offers varying course durations. The length depends on the specific program, ranging from a few months to a year.

Can I apply if I'm still in college?

Yes, the academy accepts applications from individuals currently pursuing their graduation. The training schedule is designed to accommodate students' academic commitments.

What sets Manasa Defence Academy apart from others?

The academy's commitment to personalized attention, experienced faculty, and a holistic approach to training distinguishes it from others.

How can I enroll in the academy?

To enroll in Manasa Defence Academy, visit their official website or contact the admissions office for detailed information on the application process.

[indizombie]

There are about 35,000 Nepali Gurkhas currently serving in the Indian army, including in the geopolitically sensitive region of Indian-administered Kashmir and the northeastern parts of the country. The Gurkhas have a strong bond with the Indian military, and Gurkha regiments have become part of the culture of the Nepali hill communities. There are about 120,000 Indian Gurkha veterans living in Nepal. Their pension and other benefits have contributed to the economy of the impoverished hill regions.

Anbarasan Ethirajan, ‘Agnipath scheme: The pain of Nepal's Gurkhas over Indian army's new hiring plan’, BBC

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Countries that are no more: Sikh Empire (1799-1849)

Though short lived, this empire was notable for a few reasons. First, it was the last major bastion of native rule on the Indian Subcontinent before a century of unchecked British rule which had already been gradually expanding over the preceding century. Secondly, it was diverse & tolerant in its ethnic and religious composition, not just in the general populace but more uniquely in its administration. Finally, it was notable for the religion of its leaders, perhaps the only time in history where Sikhs reigned atop an empire. This is the Sikh Empire.

Name: In English, the empire is known as the Sikh Empire. In Persian this was translated as Sarkār-i-Khālsa or the Khālasā Rāj in Punjabi. These languages were important administratively within the empire. Essentially to mean empire or kingdom of the Sikhs. Khalsa is a Punjabi term for the Sikh community more broadly and specifically means "pure" as in one professes to follow the Sikh faith and has undergone the Amrit ritual ceremony of initiation, specifically baptism.

Language: The Sikh Empire was notable for its many languages. Persian was its administrative language at court. Persian had been the language of diplomacy, administrative and the high arts from the Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent for centuries in part due to the spread of Islam to India. It was the court language of the greatest Islamic polity in the history of India, the Mughal Empire (1526-1857). Other languages which in the empire included Indo-Aryan languages such as Punjabi which was the dynastic native tongue of the ruling family and various Punjabi dialects which made up the lingua franca of the core territory of the empire. Kashmiri and Dogri were spoken in some parts as well, also Pashto (Pashtun) also known as Afghani. There were numerous others which also took place in its territory in modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Territory: At its peak, the empire held roughly 200,000 sq miles of territory. The territory was centered in the Punjab region of modern Northwestern India and Eastern Pakistan. It covered territory in the modern states of India, Pakistan, the Afghanistan & Pakistan border and even small parts of Western Tibet in modern China.

Symbols & Mottos: The motto of the empire was ਅਕਾਲ ਸਹਾਇ Akāl Sahāi which is Punjabi for "With God's Grace" and its anthem was ਦੇਗ ਤੇਗ ਫ਼ਤਿਹ Dēġ Tēġ Fatih Punjabi for "Victory to Charity and Arms." The also used a triangled flag called the Nishan Sahib. This flag was used by Sikhs prior to the 1799 establishment of the empire and continued to have use after its 1849 disestablishment. It is usually depicted as an orange inner field with a green outer field with golden trim and patterns both on the green outer field and orange inner field. There were also individual flags for various Sikh, Hindu and Muslim regiments within the army as well. The Muslim ones often sharing similarity with the modern Pakistan flag.

Religion: Sikhism was the dynastic religion and religion of roughly 6-12 percent of the overall population. 50-80 percent of the populace was Muslim and 10-40 percent Hindu. There were also smaller populations of Christians and Jews as well. Religious tolerance was practiced as a matter of policy throughout the empire. Sikhs certainly benefitted from a ruling dynasty that was of their community however with larger populations of Muslims and Hindus among their territory, policies of accommodation and tolerance were practiced to other faiths as well. Likewise Indian and European Christians could practice their faith and rise to important military and government positions and even some Jews featured in the military as well. Promotion within the military and government more broadly had less to do with religion, ethnicity or geographic origin than with merit and personal loyalty.

Currency: The currency of the empire was called Nanak Shahi Sikee, these were metal coins usually of silver composition.

Population: The population was estimated to be roughly 12 million people at its peak in in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Government: The government could be characterized as a federal monarchy with a later adoption of elements of absolute monarchy. Its origins lie in the Sikh community which started in the Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent. This region consists of modern Pakistan (mostly) and some of India (remaining portion). It spans the five major rivers west to east (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi & Sutlej). Sikhism had its origins and greatest core in the Punjab region among Punjabis. Though it is a relatively young religion by comparison to Hinduism and Islam, elements of overlap and interaction with both of these older faiths have influenced it. Nonetheless, Sikhs faced alternating periods of tolerance and persecution throughout the Mughal Empire and many Sikhs hid in jungles near the Himalayan foothills as refuge from the Muslim Mughals and various local Hindu hill tribal chiefs who persecuted them.

In response to this persecution from their neighbors, Sikhs formed militias to protect their religion community, these militias were called jathas and in turn these formed into a larger Dal Khalsa (Sikh army) circa 1735-1738. in 1748 at Amritsar, India, the most holy city for Sikhs in 1748 these militias were reorganized into a misl which is an Arabic term for equal. These misls became known as the Sikh Confederacy or Misl period (1748-1799). There were twelve sovereign Sikh misls formed and later a Muslim ruled misl which created a federation or confederacy united by Sikhism to preserve and protect their religious faith. There was uneven strength between the misls and some tried to expand at the expense of others, but they still formed a common defense of their community and even held biannual legislative meetings in Amritsar to address matters of the community.

The Mughal Empire suffered major decline in the 18th century following the death of its emperor Aurangzeb in 1707. The combination of a ruined economy from expensive wars, decentralization of power and the expanse of the Hindu oriented Maratha Empire (1674-1818) from the Western Deccan Plateau all contributed to its decline and creation of a power vacuum in parts of India, including the Punjab. To make matters worse, Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia invaded the Mughal Empire in 1739 and sacked the Mughal capital at Delhi. The plundering of riches from the Mughal capital was so great that Persia experienced three years exempt from all internal taxes. In this context the already persecuted Sikhs sought greater mutual defense, though their political autonomy remained relative to their respective misl. Despite the occasion inter-fighting with each other. Other problems came from the Afghan Durrani Empire which grew in the wake of Nader Shah's passing in Iran. The Durrani Empire would expand into Northern India including the Punjab and make the Mughals their vassals especially after defeating the Maratha Empire in 1761 at the Third Battle of Panipat. The Afghans would battle the Sikh Misls many times which aimed to defend themselves in the power vacuum from the Mughal decline.

The founder of the Sikh Empire proper, who united all the thirteen misls was a man named Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) who was of Jat-Punjabi ethnic origin and specifically Jat Sikh ethnoreligious families. His father Maja Singh and grandfather Charat Singh were the founders and chiefs of the Sukerchakia Misl. Ranjit was afflicted with smallpox as a child and left him blind in his left eye and scarred on his body, features which were noted by observers from Europe later in life.

Ranjit's father died when he was 12 and he took over chiefdom of the Sukerchakia Misl which was among the five most power Sikh misls. Through marriage Ranjit had alliances with two of the other top five misls. The Kasur misl near the major city and traditional capital of the Punjab of Lahore was controlled by a Muslim who assisted the Afghans in their invasions of India. Ranjit Singh defeated an Afghan invasion in 1797 in battle. In 1798 another Afghan army was checked by Ranjit Singh through scorched earth tactics.

in 1799 Ranjit Singh took Lahore using a combined 50,000 strong army made from his misl and that of his mother-in-law. This was traditionally dated as the founding of the Sikh Empire as Lahore would serve as its capital but Ranjit Singh would be formally vested as the Maharaja (King) of the Punjab in 1801.

Ranjit Singh held many titles, but the principal ones were Maharaja of the Punjab and Sarkar Khalsaji (Head of the Khalsa) which showed his titular leader status over the Sikh army and other misls. His authority was both geographic in nature and communal-religious in nature (to a degree).

Ranjit Singh would rule and expand the Sikh Empire until his death in 1839. The empire would survive roughly a decade after his demise.

Ranjit Singh was tolerant towards background in his governance and believed in merit and loyalty above all else. He hired Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Christians into his military and civil administration. These could also be Indians and Europeans with some French, Italian, Spanish, Russian & German officers taking leadership within his military. Even a few American adventurers such as Josiah Harlan and Alexander Gardner found work within Ranjit Singh's empire. The former Harlan (born to Quakers in Pennsylvania) taking on a governorship and the latter Gardner who was said to be born to a Scottish or Irish (possibly Scots-Irish) fur trader in modern day Wisconsin and had travelled to Central Asia dressed in a turban decked in Scottish tartan pattern joined the Sikh Empire's military where he served as a colonel and commanded the artillery. Ranjit refrained from hiring British officers joining his ranks but still communicated with the British East India Company which was Britain's state sponsored corporation bent on controlling India for its geostrategic and economic benefits. He relented slightly after 1835 and hired some British into his ranks.

Ranjit was secular and tolerant in his rule overall but personally followed Sikhism, he restored Sikh Gurdwaras (temples) and also prayed with Hindus in their own temples and upheld the Hindu sacred protection of cows and prevented their slaughter under punishment by death. Likewise, he had standing orders that his army was never to loot or molest civilians especially when conquering new territory and to not destroy houses of worship. All discipline was to be strictly enforced under his order. Observers noted that Ranjit would increase the salary of those who didn't engage in corruption and slice the nose off of those who were said to misbehave or act corruptly in his administration of state affairs. The mutilation was not only physical discipline but a psychological scar to deter bad behavior and forever mark one as untrustworthy.

The above is the consensus of most accounts, there are some Muslim accounts from the mid-19th century which portray Ranjit's reign as despotic and biased towards Kashmiri Muslims. The overall picture is one of a complex individual but generally agreed upon to be tough and strict at times but also overall pragmatic and not willing to let religious or national background create a personal bias towards their utilization in his administration.

After Ranjit's death the rules of succession weren't clearly established and in quick succession his son, grandson and subsequently two other sons ruled in his wake with his son Duleep Singh reigning the longest from 1843-1849. Duleep would later live in exile in Europe following defeat his by the British.

Military: The Sikh Khalsa Army at its peak in 1839 was roughly 125,000 men strong and it had infantry, cavalry and artillery components. Its origins lied in the Sikh jathas of the late 17th and early 18th centuries which passed onto the Sikh Misl (Confederacy) period of the later 18th century. These were typically cavalry based and engaged in hit and run tactics against the Mughals, Maratha and Afghans. Later Ranjit would modernize the Sikh army along European principles utilizing European and American recruited officers and by purchasing and developing modern weapons.

The military were given performance standards for logistics of troop deployment, maneuver and marksmanship. Likewise, the army was divided into three segments of elite troops, regulars and irregulars. Each with its own infantry, cavalry and artillery component. Even European style medals and awards for merit could be issued, including the Order of Merit with Ranjit's portrait featured on the medal.

Ultimately, the empire's military was a synthesis of modern (19th century) Western organization, discipline and technology with the original Indian cavalry hit and tactics and methods of its Sikh jatha forebearers.

Its infantry composition was not just Western officers and Sikhs of the Punjab for originally Sikhs looked down upon the infantry and so Afghans, Dogras and Nepali Gurkhas among others filled the infantry ranks. In time Punjabi Sikhs joined its ranks too. It reached over 50,000 in strength.

The cavalry reached a strength of 10,000 strong and consisted of Sikhs mainly, given their traditional use of cavalry dating back to jatha and misl eras preceding the 19th century.

The artillery was made up of 5,000 gunners at its peak with heavy cannons pulled by elephants, medium cannon pulled by oxen, light cannon pulled by horses and some mixed guns pulled by camels.

The traditional enemies of the empire in war consisted of the Afghans who presented its greatest threat from the West, the Sikhs pushed the Afghans from the Punjab and pressed into Afghanistan itself before being checked at the border, this demarcated the empire's western limit.

Other enemies included the Kingdom of Nepal which the Sikhs defeated. The Sikh Empire and its vassal the Dogra Rajput also fought against the Chinese Qing Empire and its vassal Tibet which resulted into a military stalemate but saw brief occupation of parts of Western Tibet in the early 1840s.

Its terminal enemy was the British East India Company which would face and defeat the Sikh Empire in two wars (1845-1846 and 1848-1849). The second war would lead to the British annexation of the Punjab and formal cessation of the Sikh Empire.

Lifespan: The empire's origins date back to the 18th century formation of the Sikh Misls within the Punjab and its gradual union under Ranjit Singh. Formally dated to start his 1799 capture of Lahore. In 1801 Ranjit was formally coronated as Maharaja of the Punjab.

Over the next several decades the empire would expand in several directions with the gradual defeat of the Afghans and Marathas who warred in the vicinity of the Punjab.

1809 saw Ranjit Singh sign a treaty of friendship with the British East India Company (EIC). This treaty requested Sikh help against the French should they attack EIC possessions elsewhere in India. Also, the Sikhs were not to pursue conquest south of the Sutlej River which acted as a border between Sikh and British spheres of influence. In reality this bought Ranjit time to focus on expanding against the Afghans in Punjab and Kashmir.

The empire expanded well into the fall reaches beyond Kashmir and Jammu and gained vassals in the Ladakh region. Likewise, the Sikhs would go onto fight the Nepalese (Gurkhas) and check their advance towards Kashmir.

The empire's lifespan very much mirrored with its founder Ranjit Singh's. Ranjit Singh had unified the Sikh Misls of the Punjab through alliance and conquest, and he driven out the Afghan invaders and expanded the Sikh polity he created to vast territories with tributary states of its own. He also gained riches from conquest, meritorious tax collections and trade agreements. Financed religious temple constructions of various faiths and modernized the military. Yet while his empire was on the surface strong, it was to peak with his demise in 1839. His health had declined in the 1830s due to a stroke and alcoholism as noted by many observers. He was said to treat his chronic pain with alcohol and opium though conversely, he refused to eat beef or smoke and was somewhat health conscious. Ultimately it was said he died of a combination of stroke and his failing liver due to his excessive alcohol consumption. He was cremated and four of his Hindu wives are said to have committed sati (ritualistic devotional suicide of widows by casting oneself onto the husband's burning funeral pyre) in a final act of martial devotion to their departed spouse.

In Ranjit Singh's wake, his sons and grandsons found themselves competing for succession, their were deep internal divisions and who to support and in quick order a son, grandson and two more sons of Ranjit took control with the youngest son Duleep Singh taking "control" at age five in 1843 and he would nominally reign for six years. He had a regency under his mother Jind Kaur for the years of his rule.

Following Ranjit's death, the internal division over support of his successors along with the ruling elite of the army which saw itself as the true extension of state and religion was convinced to go to war with the British in 1845-46. The Sikh administrators were said by the British to undermine the plurality and tolerance under Ranjit Singh towards other religions pushing for a Sikh supremacy in all matters. In response, the British began building a military presence along the Sutlej River, viewed as a provocation by the Sikhs. The British stated it was defensive in nature given what they saw as increasing chaos in the Sikh Empire. However, the Sikhs contend it was intended as offensive in nature to goad the empire into war. Whatever the varied causes war began in late 1845 and concluded with British victory in 1846. The result was the partial subjugation of the Sikh Empire with some territory and monies being ceded to the British. Also, separately Kashmir would be sold the to the princely state of Jammu (under British sponsorship).

Tensions between both the Sikhs and British remained which culminated in a second war in 1848-49 and saw the Sikhs fight valiantly but once more defeated. In April 1849 at Lahore, the British annexed the Punjab up to the fortress of Peshawar, gateway to the Khyber Pass towards Afghanistan. The British East India Company turned the Sikh Empire into the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province regions in modern Pakistan and India.

The British were impressed with the military prowess of the Sikhs, in part due to the religious devotion of its troops and in part due to the modernization efforts of Ranjit Singh and his able commanders. The conquest of the Sikh Empire served as the removal of last major obstacle to British rule over the whole of India. Recognizing the prowess of Sikh troops, the British were quick to incorporate them into the British Indian Army. A role they would play from the 1850s including during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 until World War II and the eventual granting of independence to India and Pakistan.

Duleep Singh was brought up in exile in Europe following the British annexation of the Sikh Empire, his teenage years spent in Scotland. He would go onto have family there and the Crown Jewels of the UK now in possession of the British Royal Family would incorporate some of its jewels taken from the Sikh Empire's Duleep Singh. Queen Victoria received the Koh-i-noor diamond which is set in the Queen Mother's crown to this day. The diamond dates back to the Mughal Empire and changed hands with the Persian looting of Delhi to Nader Shah before ending up in the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan and then the Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh and finally with the British as a gift to Queen Victoria as it was formally surrendered to the EIC and then gifted to the queen. The modern governments of India, Pakistan Afghanistan (including the Taliban) and Iran have all demanded its return to them respectively, a demand which Britain's government has rejected. In 2018, India's Supreme Court & the Archeological Survey of India supported Britain's legal claim, stating the Treaty of Lahore in 1849 secured it through voluntary surrender, stating it was neither stolen nor taken by force, so it remains with the British Crown despite ongoing controversy.

Though the Sikh Empire lasted only half a century for the reasons outlined above, it is a polity worthy of study. First and foremost, its historical place in India as the last major bastion of independent native resistance before total British rule has endeared it to some Indian and Pakistani nationalists and international anticolonial narratives. The British recognized through its occasional defeats in battle at the hands of the Sikhs that they were a force to be reckoned with. Both sides earned a begrudging martial respect for the other following the two wars they fought. The British were keen to utilize the Sikhs for their own military, for which they served over the next century in many campaigns worldwide. Outside from its place in narratives of native resistance to colonial rule and its well-founded military prowess. The empire is relatively unique for its synthesis of administrative help from both within India and the West. Much of this can be chalked up to Ranjit Singh's personally pragmatic and disciplined approach to governance. Quite simply put Ranjit Singh wanted what he thought were the most qualified leaders regardless of ethnic or cultural background. Their merit as modernizers and reformers coupled with personal loyalty were prized above religious or ethnic affinity. Finally, the Sikh Empire is noteworthy simply for being to date the only Sikh run imperial polity in world history. Though it was the successor of the Sikh Misls which had a unified common defense, these misls were essentially politically independent in their own right rather than a singular polity. The Sikh Empire is the only time in history that a ruling dynasty over a vast territorial expanse came from practitioners of that religion and it was supported by an army and administration centered around that faith as well.

[reddeadreference]

Saint Denis Times No. 52

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This issue is available after completion of the mission: The King’s Son

(All article transcripts below the cut)

Articles marked with * are exclusive to this region’s issue.

Articles marked with ** are only there upon completion of the related mission.

Murderous Indian Breaks Free

FORT WALLACE A BLOODBATH. VICIOUS ATTACK AT NIGHT. COLONEL PROMISES JUSTICE.

In an act that further proves their treachery and villainy, restless and disruptive forces amongst the Indian population have once again attacked the American forces, this time in an effort to free one of their own. A murderer known as Eagle Flies was broken out of an Army barracks at Fort Wallace where he was set to stand trial for a series of murders of Army personnel. In a daring attack in the middle of the night, members of his disruptive tribe attacked soldiers, brutally killing them and fleeing with their comrade.

Eagle Flies is the son of Rains Fall, a chief of the disruptive tribe that makes up most of the population of the Wapiti Indian Reservation. The tribe has become unmanageable and more obstinate at every punishment handed down and treaty broken. Colonel Favours, who supervises Fort Wallace, has vowed swift and unrelenting measures to control the Indian problem in the region.

Railway Companies Booming

CONSOLIDATION BRINGS FEARS OF MONOPOLY.

Gone is the New Austin Northern Railroad. Long forgotten is the Armadillo Express Railroad. Only the oldest among us remembers the Valentine Valley Railway. As each year passes, dozens of railway are formed, combine, and break up, the signs changed, the schedules printed anew, and the names are lost to history.

Since completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the number of companies has decreased, and travel by wagon and horse becomes less and less in fashion, with more people preferring the luxury of a sleeper car. Lawmakers are beginning to investigate whether the railway consolidation has resulted in creating regional monopolies that subject riders to hefty price increases.

Fears of the Grippe Returning

1 MILLION DEAD FROM LAST EPIDEMIC. INFLUENZA CASES WORRY PHYSICIANS.

Just a few years ago an influenza pandemic spread across the globe, spreading fever and misery to all within its touch, killing well over a million people. The Russian Flu, as it was called, experienced recurrences every year for several years then went dormant. Physicians are warning that another Grippe pandemic is due to spread, and advise patients to practice caution and cleanliness.

Fears are prevalent that influenza spreads by letters written by those who are diseased, sending the deadly disease by post. One physician claimed Grippe attacks the higher rather than lower classes, though this claim appears to be false in nature. The disease appears to be more prevalent in milder weather, and for those afflicted, whiskey and brandy are advantageous in finding relief.

On Outlaw Gangs: "We Must Stop Them".

ARMY/PINKERTONS JOIN FORCES. CITIZENS DEMAND END OF THREAT.

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency has been enlisted in the hunt for several notorious highwaymen and gangs responsible for the recent violence and unrest in the Roanoke Ridge region of New Hanover. At a recent town hall meeting, citizens shouted over one another, demanding an end to the lawlessness. In recent years gangs have terrorized not only individuals but entire communities, murdering women, children, and the elderly.

Little thought or rumination is given to who or why they butcher, and no amount of blood seems to slake their thirst. In response, the Army and law enforcement coordinated with the Pinkerton agency to seek the imminent capture or killing of gangs with great success in a concerted effort to civilize the region and bring the benefits of law and order to the people.

Gangs such as the O'Driscolls have been hunted to the brink of extinction. Now officials have their sights on the Dutch Van der Linde gang. A spokesperson for the Pinkerton agency believes that they are on the trail of the gang, and the unified purpose of the army, law enforcement and the agency is to bring them to heel.

Prominent Yale Scientist Speaks Out

MIXING OF RACES DISCOURAGED. AMERICAN SOCIETY AT RISK.

Noted Yale anthropologist Harold MacDougal, author of the book "The Scourge of Crossbreeding", presented a paper to colleagues at a symposium last week, reminding fellow scientists that some races are predisposed to create higher functioning societies than others. The paper, titled 'Savage Minds: The Racial Continuum Between Animal and God', has created a stir amongst those in the anthropological community.

It is clear to me that some societies advance, taming agriculture, mastering letters and literature, inventing fantastical things such as the phonograph or electricity while others wallow in squalor, scarcely able to feed and clothe themselves. It comes down to the nature of the savage soul. Savages cannot construct buildings that rise to the heavens, but we have, MacDougal said in an agitated and excited manner.

The Professor of Anthropology at Yale has dedicated his academic focus to the study of race and civilization. His paper was soundly thrashed by his colleague Benjamin Fortescue who asserted that MacDougal has no empirical evidence to support his wild claims.

Widow's Life Savings Chewed Up By Rats

Myrtle Snodgrass awoke one January night recently and moved softly from the bedside to the fireplace which had succumbed to embers. She heard a sound unlike that of the cows baying in the distance, her hound Jesse prancing in his sleep, or the wind through the chimney as the fire burned down. The sound was one of chewing. The widow had spent long days and nights in her home, with an eerie fascination in the dead silence of the night as it is punctured by the howl of a distant coyote or owl.

For years the widow had collected her fortune, a vocal skeptic of banks and their frequent failings. Her bank notes were always squirreled away, far from the prying eyes of friends or family. As she searched her home for the source of the sounds, she, full of dread, lifted the floorboard where she had stored her years of earnings, only to find a rat's nest, made cozy with the chewed up remains of her savings, a total of $250 in bank notes and bonds.

Electric Washing Machine Invented

MOTHERS CHEER WASHBOARDS ARE RELICS.

Every day mothers toil over the washboard, cleaning the dungarees, bloomers and britches and keeping their households happy. However, a new invention out of Chicago promises to make that a thing of the past.The Hathaway Machine Company has announced the invention of a washing machine run by electricity. Clothes are placed in a drum type cavern that is galvanized.

This perforated cylinder contains blades that lift the clothing as it rotates. The new machines are expected to be sold through the Wheeler and Rawson catalogues as of next year. Drying the clothes, however, still requires a clothesline strung outside, or a mangle.

QUESTIONS ONCE AGAIN.

YOUNG MAN STONED TO DEATH.

The shocking tragedy that befell William Bowles is once again in front of the authorities. At the request of a woman in Rhodes, a petition to authorities asks to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death by stoning of her nephew William Bowles. While many variations exist on the events that transpired that day, some in the community say that William was slow of learning and had committed an act that warranted his death by an angry mob. 

The stoning created tremendous excitement, and those that gathered refused to testify or discuss the incident, to the great distress of friends and family.

O'DRISCOLL HANGED

NOTORIOUS OUTLAW'S LUCK RUNS OUT

 Colm O'Driscoll was hanged in Saint Denis, ending his ruthless time on the run as the notorious outlaw and leader of the O'Driscoll Boys. The gang perpetrated numerous robberies, train holdups, and brutal murders on both sides of the Grizzlies, striking fear into residents and travelers in the area. Since the death of his outlaw brother a decade prior, Colm O'Driscoll has run with both Irish and American hoodlums willing to die for a few dollars and some whisky. 

O'Driscoll had previously avoided the gallows following two separate murder convictions, and some members of his gang began shooting at police in retaliation directly after the execution.

The Art of Angling by Jeremy Gill

PERCH.

I consider myself a fisher of man as much as a fisherman. As trouble brews in Europe, and all this nasty business unfolds with Spain, I was asked by the President to tour over there and unite nations by bringing the great leaders together through reigniting a faculty that lies dormant in most men: fishing. Trapped in palaces and attending functions deprives a man of his instinct for self-preservation and joy.

Normally, I plan on teaching confused and lost heads of state to catch Perch. Small, easy to catch and tasty, any inbred dullard or pompous windbag worth his seat can hoist one into a boat with a worm. A sunny day, a grog of ale, and a stringer full of Perch will alleviate the world's weight on one's shoulders. Be well, be wise and be lucky!

[therewasabrowncrow]

Last week, the “most Indian cabinet” in British history realised a long-standing dream of the Tory right: the introduction of a purposely cruel “points-based” immigration system. Finally, as many were quick to point out, we saw the limits of “representation politics” laid bare – the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the three other British Indians appointed to Johnson’s cabinet will only embolden Tory racism. But there is a more important story to tell here about how the modern Conservative party came to embrace British Indians – one that runs through Nairobi, Harrow East and occupied Kashmir.

Indian migration to Britain took place in two significant waves. The first was in the late 1940s and 50s, when migrants were recruited directly from India by successive governments to fill the labour shortage that resulted from the second world war. They mostly settled in the Midlands and the north-west of England, working in foundries and textile manufacturing. These migrants were heavily involved in building Britain’s antiracist and trade union movements in the 1950s and 60s, drawing on lessons learned from anti-colonial struggles back home to organise their communities in Britain. To this day, these communities are disproportionately working class and Labour voting.

The second wave of Indian migrants to Britain were the so-called “twice migrants” who arrived from east Africa in the 1960s and 70s, having been expelled or encouraged to leave by the newly independent regimes in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The families of our chancellor, home secretary and attorney general are all part of this latter group.

So how and why have their descendants become so prominent on the Tory frontbenches? The answer begins in 1895, with the creation of the British East Africa Protectorate. British officials envisioned the protectorate, which occupied roughly the same area as modern-day Kenya, as the “America of the Hindu”, a settler-colonial project to be led by Indians on behalf of the British.

In the early 20th century, thousands of Indians (mostly Goans, Gujaratis and Punjabis) were imported into east Africa as subcolonial agents of civilisation. They were required to work in colonial administration and serve in the colonial police and army, to keep the “native peoples” in order. At the same time, more than 30,000 indentured labourers were brought over from India to build the Kenya-Uganda railway.

Many of these labourers chose to settle in the protectorate after the railway was completed. They were soon joined by many more Indian subjects, who moved freely to the protectorate in search of economic prosperity. Functioning as a subordinate ruling class, Indians in east Africa enjoyed success in business, finance and the professions throughout the colonial period, and gained significant control over the economy. By the time Kenya won its independence in 1963, Indians – who accounted for less than 3% of the population – owned more than two thirds of the country’s private non-agricultural assets.

When this group of Indians arrived in Britain, many brought with them the considerable wealth they had accrued (along with a hostility towards black Africans). Others brought with them the benefits of English-language education. These advantages virtually guaranteed the economic success of east African Indians in Britain, especially in the retail businesses of Margaret Thatcher’s “enterprise economy”, for which they soon became known. Rishi Sunak’s pharmacist mother and Priti Patel’s newsagent-owning parents were typical of their generation.

The Conservative leadership of the time identified this demographic as potential voters. From the 1980s onwards, the Tories began to court an imagined “Indian community”, limited to east African Indians who had settled around London. Successful British Indians were held up as evidence of what could be achieved under a free-market Conservative government. In 1988, Thatcher welcomed the new Indian high commissioner to Britain with the following words: “We so much welcome the resourceful Indian community here in Britain. You have brought the virtues of family, of hard work and of resolve to make a better life … you are displaying splendid qualities of enterprise and initiative, which benefit not just you and your families but the Indian community and indeed the nation as a whole.”

Fast-forward to 2010, and the Conservatives held 30% of the British Indian vote. After 30 years of Thatcherite ideology, British Indians were the most pro-Conservative ethnic minority, after the Jewish community. After decades of gradual advance, this number soared to 40% in 2017. In the 2019 election, as the Conservatives chased a realignment towards white northern voters based on racist scaremongering, support in constituencies with high Indian populations increased substantially again. At every point, this has included members of both groups of Indian migrants. Now British Indians make up 15% of the Tory cabinet.

The Tories have now managed to extend their appeal beyond the “two time” migrants by finding common cause in a project of Islamophobia. Supported by the Indian government and its far-right ruling party, the BJP, the Conservatives have exploited a sharp rise in Hindu nationalism within the British Indian community to play Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Muslim communities off against one another.

The Conservative campaign in Harrow East, a marginal constituency in which 25% of the voters are of Indian origin, provided the clearest example of this. The constituency’s Conservative MP, Bob Blackman, whose Twitter background photo shows him smiling next to Prime Minister Modi, saw fit to retweet a post by the far-right commentator Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (alias Tommy Robinson) that highlighted Muslim violence against Hindus. He stated that he had done this in error, but along with others in the Conservative party, he has encouraged the portrayal of Labour as “anti-Hindu” and pro-Muslim, citing Labour’s perceived support for the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination as evidence. In the 2019 election, his majority increased by more than 6,000 votes, and he was sworn into parliament on the Bhagavad Gita.

Seventy years after India liberated itself from colonial rule, the old colonial tactics of divide and rule continue to govern Indians in the metropole. Overcoming this is not an impossible task. However, the relative ease with which we Indians in Britain have found ourselves in this situation should be of serious concern. That the latest expansion of Britain’s punitive border regime can be drawn up and legitimised by the sons and daughters of migrants reveals the limits of an antiracist discourse that claims a common “lived experience” as the grounds for political action.

Our community’s history of antiracist struggle in Britain can show us another way to confront these issues. When Indian migrants first arrived in Britain in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, they joined forces with recently arrived African-Caribbean migrants to form a unified “black” community of resistance. They responded to state neglect, racial violence and racist policing with a range of radical self-help initiatives, run through organisations such as the United Coloured People’s Alliance, the Black Liberation Front and the British Black Panther Movement. This is a story of community and class solidarity based on shared resistance. It should be recovered to prepare us for the fight ahead.

[hasufin]

Not the goal

Realized I accidentally made a completely vegan meal for the homeless shelter.

Now, for one, I don’t normally cook for the homeless shelter. They have a schedule of volunteers, and I found I just couldn’t manage the commitment - doing it, like, once or twice a year is fine, but two or three times a month was a bit much. And they need you to get the food there at 5:45 pm on the dot. Which is a thing I didn’t know about homeless shelters - they’re extremely strict in many ways, including that the people coming in need to be there at a specific time and after that the door is locked. Which on one level makes sense for some practical reasons but on another level is dehumanizing and very bad for people who don’t have reliable transportation and may have to choose between pulling another shift at Home Depot and making enough money to eat for the week, or getting to the shelter that night and having a warm place to sleep. So, yeah.

But, anyway. The person who was scheduled to cook on Sunday fell through, and seeing the call from the coordinator I opted to step up. But, that leaves the question: what do I make for 14 adults who may not get anything else to eat that day? I want to be generous with the food, but there’s a practical aspect that simply put that’s a lot of food. So I went to my first choice for “and I shall feed an army”: dal. I actually use my own recipe which I cam up with trying to replicate what I got in restaurants, and strangely enough happened to come up with Indian Auntie certified correct tadka dal. As a major benefit, it’s something I can put in the crockpot and have stewing all day without intervention. And I can make rice in the rice cooker the same way (had to crack out the instant pot to make enough though). So, straightforward enough. But also not enough. I like to give them a dessert too. Chocolate cake is basic, but after curried lentils maybe that’s a good idea. I’ve been meaning to try making Wacky Cake, which is a cake recipe from the Great Depression which uses shelf-stable ingredients - no butter, milk, or eggs. And it came out beautifully.

Plenty of food, delivered on time, but... huh. we’re a vegetarian household for the most part, but not for ideological reasons. I would not have set out to make a vegan meal, and if you said “make a vegan meal for 14 people” I would have said “No, I can do vegetarian but I need to have milk and eggs.” So it just kinda happened.

[absolutedigitalbranding]

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was born on 23 January 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa. He was one of the most prominent Indian freedom fighters. His army was known as Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj. He also led an Indian national force from abroad against the Western powers during World War II.

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