Lectures & Videos

Mapping the Diverse Historical Experience of the Horse Yashaswini Chandra and Dr. Hasneyn Mirza in conversation with Anirudh Kanisetti. Feb 26, 2021 https://bangaloreinternationalcentre.org/event/how-the-horse-shaped-india/ In her book The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback, Yashaswini Chandra follows the trail of the animal into and within India until the decline of ‘the age of the horse’ with the onset of colonial rule and mechanisation. It includes both the life of horses in India as well as their role in the history of the subcontinent. She emphasises the diverse experience of the horse towards a total history surrounding it. This is reflected in the diversity of sources that inform the book, encompassing textual and art-historical ones as well as oral traditions. The different, technical, social and cultural, aspects of the book will be discussed in a panel by the author in conversation with equine veterinarian Dr Hasneyn Mirza, and Anirudh Kanisetti. The discussion will be illustrated by telling images, and Chandra will examine the multifarious manifestations of the horse across Indian art as well as some examples of historical sites associated with it. In collaboration with Museum of Art and Photography & PAN Macmillan India

CEPT Foundation Programme invites you to The Mad World of Medieval India, a talk by Anirudh Kanisetti. The Mad World of Medieval India examines a part of history that is incredibly important yet most of us know almost nothing about. Today we might see medieval Indian buildings and literature as beautiful, if somewhat irrelevant curiosities. Anirudh sees them somewhat differently. The fragments that remain of this time are tantalising hints of a medieval Indian society strangely reminiscent of our own in its plurality, dynamism, urbanism, and its connectivity to the rest of the world. Anirudh Kanisetti is a researcher and writer. He is the host of Echoes of India: A History Podcast and Yuddha: The Indian Military History Podcast, and is the author of an upcoming book on the medieval Deccan. Anirudh's work covers a variety of areas, from history to technology to geopolitics, and has been published in Mint, The Print, The Deccan Herald, The New Indian Express, and Pragati. He won the New Indian Express' 40 under 40 Award for his work as a public historian in September 2020.

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In the early 16th century, the Portuguese viceroy of Goa, Alfonso da Albequrque, wrote to the king of Portugal that the gunpowder weapons of the Deccan were as good as those of Germany and Bohemia. India, it would seem, was a hotbed of innovation in the manufacturing of guns and cannon - a contribution often ignored in global military history. The Deccan Sultanates - Ahmednagar and Bijapur especially - were among the earliest Indian states to adopt gunpowder technology, sparking off an arms race that made this region one of the world's most militarily innovative regions. In this lecture, Anirudh Kanisetti, Associate Fellow at The Takshashila Institution, discusses the strategic and tactical context of interstate competition in the medieval Deccan, the factors leading up to the famous defeat of the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota in 1565, and lessons for Indian strategists today.

Sudeep Chakravarti in conversation with Anirudh Kanisetti. https://bangaloreinternationalcentre.org/event/plassey/ The Battle of Plassey, fought on 23 June 1757, changed the course of Indian history forever. When the short, sharp hostilities between the forces of the nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-daulah, and East India Company troops led by Robert Clive, an ambitious soldier of fortune, ended, Britain was on its way to becoming the dominant force in the region. The eighteenth century was a time of great political churn in the subcontinent. After the death of Emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal empire began to slowly fracture. In the east, the nawabs of Bengal, who ruled in the name of the Mughals, took the opportunity to break free. By the middle of the century, Siraj-ud-daulah succeeded his grandfather, Alivardi Khan, to the throne of Bengal. The young nawab clashed frequently with the Company as it looked to aggressively expand and safeguard its interests. Their skirmishes led inexorably to Plassey, a decisive battle in a mango orchard by the banks of the Bhagirathi-Hugli. But what was Plassey all about, besides a young nawab who stood in the way of a company’s business plans and a country’s dreams of conquest? Was it really a battle or was it won before it began? What were the politics of the time that permitted Plassey? Why did the British so desperately want Bengal? Who were the faces beyond a callow Siraj and a crafty Clive, the two main combatants? What are the stories behind the spurned general, the ambitious and hateful aunt, the rude and covetous cousin, the insulted banker, the grasping merchant? And how was—is—Plassey seen? By the victors and the vanquished? The colonizer and the colonized? Why does Plassey remain such a fascinating story even today?