Proof set: Maharana Pratap

Maharana Pratap proof set cover

Maharana Pratap proof set obverse

Reverse

Maharana Pratap 100 rupee

Maharana Pratap 10 rupee

Maharana Pratap 1 rupee

Maharana Pratap Singh was a ruler of Mewar and belonged to the Sisodiya clan of Suryavanshi Rajputs. Maharana Pratap Singh is believed to be the epitome of fiery Rajput pride and self-respect; he has exemplified the qualities to which Rajputs aspire for centuries. Maharana Pratap Singh was born as the eldest child among 25 brothers and 20 sisters at Kumbhalgarh on May 9, 1540 to Maharana Udai Singh II and Maharani Javanta Bai Songara (Chauhan). The birthplace of Maharana Pratap Singh is known as Juni Kacheri.

Maharana Pratap Singh, Ruler of MewarIn 1568, during the reign of Udai Singh II, the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Chittor. The third Jauhar of Chittor became apparent, with the ladies of the fort finding safety from personal dishonour and plunged themselves into fire, while rest of the men folk sallied forth to certain death in the battlefield. Before this condition, Udai Singh and his family had moved to the safety of the nearby hills. He later moved base to another location in the foothills of the Aravalli Range. This new foundation gradually became the city of Udaipur and was accordingly named after him. Udai Singh wished Jagmal, his favorite son could succeed him but his senior nobles wanted Pratap, the eldest son, to be their king. During the coronation ceremony Jagmal was actually moved out of the palace and Pratap was deliberately made the king. Pratap did not want to go against the desire of his father but Rajput nobles convinced him strongly that Jagmal was not capable to rule in the crucial times of the day. It was the beginning of a career of struggle and hardship for Maharana Pratap Singh.

Maharana Pratap Singh never believed Akbar as the ruler of India, and kept on fighting with Akbar all his life. Akbar first tried several diplomatic ways to win over Maharana Pratap but nothing really worked. Maharana Pratap Singh maintained that he had no intention to fight with Akbar, however he could not bow down to Akbar and accept him as the ruler. There was some possibility that Maharana Pratap Singh could have become friends with Akbar, but in the invasion for Chittor Akbar had killed around 30,000 civilians, unarmed residents of Chittor only because they refused to convert to Islam. This left an ever-lasting impression on Maharana Pratap Singh`s mind and he adamant not to bow to such an injustice and cruelty.

Composition

Proof set: Bhagat Singh

ਸੂਰਾ ਸੋ ਪੇਹ੍ਚਾਨਿਯੇ ਜੋ ਲੜੇ ਦੀਨ ਕੇ ਹੇਤ ||
ਪੁਰਜਾ ਪੁਰਜਾ ਕਟ ਮਰੇ ਕਬਹੂ ਨਾ ਛਾਡੇ ਖੇਤ ||

Bhagat Singh

Bhagat Singh proof set cover

Obverse

Reverse

Bhagat Singh 100 rupee

Bhagat Singh in prison

Bhagat Singh 5 rupee

When Westerns think about India's long and gruelling struggle for independence, they picturize Richard Attenborough and Mahatma Gandhi, and maybe peaceful protests. But what is usually missed out in this is the other side of the coin: The revolutionaries epitomized by none other than Shaheed-e-Azam(king of martyrs) Bhagat Singh. Gandhi himself said of Bhagat Singh: "There has never been, within living memory, so much romance round any life as has surrounded that of him."

Though movies have been made many times about Bhagat Singh, romanticizing a life which comprises of romance itself, but not many knew about the man before Manoj Kumar's Shaheed wherein songs likeMera Rang De Basanti chola were immortalized for the generations and also reused in the remakes of the iconic movie.

Born in a family of radicals, revolution came to be in Bhagat Singh's blood and breath. A young Bhagat at age 12 was deeply moved when he missed his school to visit the site of Jallianwala Bagh maassacre in Amritsar: British army officers had shot dead about 400 peaceful protesters without any provocation and many people also died by jumping into the local well when trying to escape from the ubiquitous hail of bullets.(Yours truly has visited the site and bullet marks are still visible on the walls which scream out the story of the horrible event which occured way back in 1919). In 4 years this spark in Bhagat Singh's heart became a raging fire as he read the philopsophies of socialists like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He developed a socialist and secular vision for India which extended beyond mere freedom towards nation-building and the removal of the caste system.

In a few years, Bhagat Singh found himself at the very centre of underground Indian struggle for independence. He threw a bomb in 1929 in the legislative assembly in protest against the repressive public safety bill. As intended, nobody was hurt. As Bhagat Singh said "to make the deaf hear you need a bomb". Bhagat Singh could easily have escaped but allowed himself to be arrested in order to use his court appearances as a revolutionary platform. With courageous and powerful speeches in the court that bore little relevance to his own defense, he articulated his vision for a free India – enduring prison persecution, hunger strikes, forced-feeding and violent beatings in order to give voice to his self-proclaimed “people’s movement.” Sentenced to life imprisonment, Singh was subsequently tried – along with two fellow revolutionaries – for the killing of a police officer two years earlier. Conducted by a special tribunal fraught with violations of due process, the farcical trial ended in death sentences. Singh refused to move a mercy petition and he and his two young comrades were hanged in Lahore Jail on 23rd March 1931. He was 23 years old.

Today, India slips rapidly into the folds of capitalism. Perhaps India could have profited more if only – like Nelson Mandela – Bhagat Singh had survived to usher in its new independent era.

Composition

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai

Aye watan, Karta nahin kyun doosraa kuch baat-cheet
Dekhta hun main jise woh chup teri mehfil mein hai
Aye shaheed-e-mulk-o-millat main tere oopar nisaar
Ab teri himmat ka charcha gair ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Waqt aanay dey bata denge tujhe aye aasman
Hum abhi se kya batayen kya hamare dil mein hai
Kheench kar layee hai sab ko qatl hone ki ummeed
Aashiqon ka aaj jumghat koocha-e-qaatil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
Aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
Khoon se khelenge holi agar vatan muskhil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
Sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
Aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Hum to ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe kafan
Jaan hatheli par liye lo barh chale hain ye qadam
Zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Yuun khadaa maqtal mein qaatil kah rahaa hai baar baar'Kya tamannaa-e-shahaadat bhi kisee ke dil mein hai
Dil mein tuufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inqilaab
Hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aaj
Duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Wo jism bhi kya jism hai jismein na ho khoon-e-junoon
Toofaanon se kya lade jo kashti-e-saahil mein hai
Chup khade hain aaj saare bhai mere khaamosh hain
Na karo to kuch kaho mazhab mera mushkil mein hai

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai

Proof set: Veer Durgadass

                

                                

Proof set: First war of independence

Cover
Obverse
Reverse
5 rupee copper nickel
100 rupee obverse
100 rupee reverse

This set was released on the completion of 150 years of the first war of independence. The reverse shows two persons firing a cannon at the bottom and some warriors on horseback flanked by the figures of Bahadur Shah Zafar on the right and Tatya Tope on the left, who were two cogs in the wheel of the war. Bahadur Shah zafar was the last Mughal emperor. He was the ruler of Delhi and was also the weakest link in the revolt. The East India company made its arrival in India during the reign of the Mughal emperor Jahangir at around 1616 AD. They came originally as traders, but slowly and steadily kept expanding their reach and influence. Their aspirations and desires grew in India and one by one, they started to take over different princely states and sultanates by agreement, by deceit, and also by conquest. Many states were taken over through the doctrine of lapse, which stated that any adopted heir was not recognised as a legal heir, and the rulers like rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi thought of this as an interference in the traditional inheritance policy. Unrest grew among the princely states as one by one the British were usurping power from the princes. Most of the practices followed by the British were also not acceptable to the strictly religious Indians. One such practice was the supposed use of pork and beef in bullet cartridges in the enfield riflesthat were being given to the Indian sepoys employed by the British. Pork is taboo for Muslims and beef is anathema for Hindus. So Muslims and Hindus both were agitated by the British rule and practices. In march 1857, Mangal Pandey refused to use the enfield rifles that were provided to them and this was the trigger in the outbreak of the revolt, the seeds of which had been fomenting for quite a time. One by one, the different states declared war on the British during that year only. Eminent leaders in the war for independence from British rule included rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi, Tatia Tope, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Tipu Sultan, Rani Chennamma, begum Hazrat Mahal, Nana Saheb Peshwa and the 80 year old Kunwar Singh of Bihar. Most of the revolt was on the part of the aristocracy who were highly insecure because of their reign being taken over by the British. The participation on the part of the zamindars, taluqdars and the peasantry was very limited.

Mangal Pandey's fellow regiment men refused to arrest him, but he was unable to incite an open rebellion on their part. He tried to fire himself with his musket for his failure, but only wounded himself. He was later court martialled and hanged. The fallback of the rebellion started by Mangal Pandey was that it was not organized revolt, everyone declared war one by one. Had the revolt broken out in a coordinated manner, the British would have had their hands full. Another reason for the failure of the revolt was the non-participation of the sikhs and the pathans of North West Frontier Province and Punjab. Most people believe that this was because earlier the British had annexed Punjab only because the British had got inside help from Purbias(Bengalis and Marathis- Easterner), and the sepoys were despised far more than the British by these communities at that time.

So as a foregone conclusion, the revolt was crushed and every involved person had to face dire consequences. A no prisoner policy was adopted and mass executions were carried out with muskets , and also a large number of people were bound to cannons and blown to bits, like the Namdhari Sikhs. Bahadur shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon where he died later. Many leaders were blown by cannons, and there was large scale massacre. Women were spared but the men and the children were heartlessly killed. And I am talking of civilians , who did not take part in the revolt. Shockingly, the brutal aftermath of the reconquest was approved and also lauded of back in England as some accounts said the orientals had done wrong to the Europeans there , and that several young European girls were raped by them. Still , some people in the British army themselves did not approve of the inhuman and savage acts of suppression. People like Karl Marx have pointed out that the accounts of Indians acting as uncivilized and brutal people were biased , and in some cases, the person giving the account was not even present at the mentioned event.

The conclusion of the revolt of 1857 was that there was mass, brutal suppression and the Crown of England, at that time Queen Victoria took over the reins of colonial domination, and she became Empress Victoria.

The mint mark 'M' below the date indicates that this coin is a proof coin and struck in the Mumbai mint.

Proof set: Asian games

Cover
Obverse
Reverse
10 rupee obverse
10 rupee reverse
100 rupee obverse
100 rupee reverse

The 9th Asian Games were held from November 19, 1982 to December 4, 1982 in Delhi, India. This was the second time the Games were held in Delhi as it was also host to the inaugural 1951 Asian Games. New Delhi joined Bangkok (four times) as the only cities to host multiple editions of the Asian Games.

The Delhi Asian Games was the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The Asian Games Federation, under whose jurisdiction the first eight Asian Games had been held, dissolved to make way for the OCA.

A total number of 4,595 athletes, coming from 33 countries, competed in this Asiad. Debut sports were equestrian, golf, handball, rowing, and Women's field hockey.

These Asian Games also saw the beginning of Chinese dominance in the medals tally. Japan had won the most number of medals in previous editions of the Games. China made its presence felt in the sporting world by dethroning Japan as the top gold medalists.

In preparation for the IX Asian Games, colour television was introduced in India in a big way, as the Games were to be broadcast in colour.

The mascot for the Games was Appu – a kid elephant. Known in real life as "Kuttinarayanan", this elephant fractured its leg in an accident when he was seven years old – he stepped into a septic tank. That wound would not heal and it eventually killed him. Kuttinarayanan died on May 14, 2005.

Host of the next (10th) Asiad in 1986, and the 24th Summer Olympics in 1988, South Korea participated in the New Delhi Asiad with a 406-person delegation, including an observation team to study the facilities, management and events.

The mint mark 'B' below the date shows that this is a proof coin minted in the Bombay mint.

Proof set: Rural women's advancement

Cover

Obeverse

Reverse

10 rupee obverse

10 rupee reverse

100 rupee obverse

Reverse

Bombay mint mark

The mint mark 'B' shows that this is a proof coin minted in the Bombay mint.

Bhagat singh error set(Proof)

Bhagat singh error set cover

The recently released Bhagat singh sets have a horrible error on them: the name is written as SAGAT SINGH instead of Bhagat singh in Hindi, not once but twice. Also, 'janmshati' has been spelled as 'janmshaati'. The latter error is not too much a matter of concern but the first one is. Bhagat Singh is a national hero who is also known as "shaheed-e-azam" or the king of martyrs as he was the first one to be hanged in India's struggle for freedom, along with Rajguru and Sukhdev. Not many people knew about Bhagat Singh and his contribution to India's freedom struggle before Manoj Kumar portrayed the role of Bhagat Singh in his movie Shaheed in 1965 and immortalized songs like mera rang de basanti chola, ae watan and pagri sambhal jatta . I don't know about before but now Bhagat Singh is part of History curricula in schools these days, and children are taught about Bhagat Singh just as Manoj Kumar had his mission of infusing the youth with courage and self sacrifice through his movie Shaheed.

I have seen and heard errors like missing date, die crack error, die rotation etc. but for me, this one takes the cake in terms of the shocking quotient. I mean, just how can someone make a mistake of erroneously changing the name of a national hero in a process that is supposed to be foolproof? Would such an error not be seen by anyone in the mint before the packaging is done, the sets are packed and dispatched? And that begets another question: is the error deliberate? I know this is quite serious, but that possibility is not zero. As it is, some collector noticed the error and notified the mint. So they canceled whatever production was still in process or was being dispatched and the faulty sets, and the whole process started was started afresh. So now further shipping should be free of error. From a collector's point of view, these error sets are very rare and highly valuable.

Bhagat Singh error set obverse

Reverse

Bhagat singh 5 rupee coin

Bhagat Singh 100 rupee obverse

Bhagat Singh 100 rupee reverse