logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
43m 53s

The Poet Who Toppled The British Empire

Pushkin Industries
About this episode

India, 1930. Sarojini Naidu is marching towards a British-controlled saltwork; behind her is a long column of protestors all dressed in white. The great campaigner for India's Independence, Gandhi, is now in jail. In his place, he's chosen Naidu to lead this movement against the hard and fearsome British Empire.

Naidu and her marchers want change, and they want to achieve it peacefully. India's fate, they believe, depends on a non-violent path to resistance.

Today, there will be violence. But it won't come from them.

This is the final episode in a four-part series about how to succeed without being a jerk. This episode is based on David Bodanis' forthcoming book How To Change The World, which is scheduled to be published in late 2025.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Today
Schrödinger's Spy: Businessman, Fraud, or Russian Agent? - with Sam Jones
When the Financial Times uncovered the billion-dollar Wirecard fraud, it seemed like the story was over. But then the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Jan Marsalek, vanished - leaving behind clues that pointed to a double life as a secret agent. In his new podcast Hot Money: Ag ... Show More
1h 1m
Oct 3
Missing Fish and Fatal Feasts: Ritual and Ruin at the Sun King’s Table
In the gilded court of Louis XIV, 17th Century France, manners are everything. Where to sit, how to eat, what to wear - any misstep is costly. No one knows this better than François Vatel, the greatest party planner in all of France. Tonight, Vatel must deliver the ultimate banqu ... Show More
42m 18s
Sep 26
Don't Panic! Douglas Adams' Guide to Tomorrow - with Arvind Ethan David
Writer Douglas Adams, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, used science fiction and satire to warn us about potential dangers in our future, from artificial intelligence to social media and animal extinction. In this Cautionary Conversation, Tim is joined by Arvin ... Show More
37m 54s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
Gandhi: Architect of Indian independence
Mohandas K Gandhi’s decades-long campaign against British rule was the driving force behind Indian independence in August 1947.The way he did it - through ‘satyagraha’, or non-violent resistance - made him one of the most famous and revered thinkers of the 20th century, and has i ... Show More
46m 26s
Feb 2021
Gandhi
Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of Gandhi. We learn how he led India to independence. But more than that the girls learn life lessons from his example. 150 years India was ruled by Britain. India was a country of many religions, and many languages. These differenc ... Show More
9m 59s
Mar 2025
#225 Mahatma Ghandi
📖 Episode Transcripts in Link Below ⬇️ Today, we’ll dive into the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s nonviolent independence movement and a global symbol of peace and resistance. https://patreon.com/HistoryinSlowGerman?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=c ... Show More
4m 17s
Nov 2024
201. The Raj at War
For many years, commemorations of the two World Wars excluded the memorialisation of soldiers from the British Empire. But campaigners have gradually turned the spotlight on their experiences. In the First and Second World War, approximately 3.8 million soldiers from the Indian s ... Show More
40m 8s
Jan 2022
NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRABOSE -{OLD MONK SHOW -(THE START)}
Subash Chandra Bose was an Indian freedom fighter and one of the causes to Indian freedom. He was known as Netaji. He was the President of Indian National Congress (INC) from 1938 to 1939. He attempted to get rid of British rule in India during World War II.VOICE : DINESH RAJAN @ ... Show More
8m 39s
Oct 2023
Arunima Datta, "Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The expansion of the British Empire facilitated movement across the globe for both the colonizers and the colonized. Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain (OUP, 2023) focuses on a largely forgotten group in this story of movement and migration: South ... Show More
1h 12m
Jul 13
The East India Company
Over 400 years ago, a bold commercial venture was established to allow an ambitious group of English merchants to send ships halfway around the world in search of spices, skills, and profit. It was known as The East India Company. Over the next 250 years, the Company grew into on ... Show More
56m 36s
Aug 2024
181. The Dragon Empress: China’s Game of Thrones
The inculcation of Buddhism from India as the state religion in China was enabled by the violent rise of China’s only ever woman Emperor. Raised by pious Buddhist parents, Wu Zetian left a trail of bodies in her wake as she charted a path to absolute power. From a lowly ranked co ... Show More
36m 14s
Jan 2025
Episode #220- Did India's Thugs Really Exist? (Part I)
In 1830 an anonymous letter was published in the Calcutta Literary Gazette warning that India was being threatened by a horrifying cult of murderers. These stranglers were known as Thugs and according to the letter they represented the single greatest threat to law and order in t ... Show More
1h 9m
May 2023
Rani of Jhansi, part 2
And we're back to finish up the story of the nearly legendary Rani of Jhansi, aka Rani Lakshmibai. (You can listen to part 1 here) When we last left her, she was a new widow in an uncertain time while the rebellion was spreading through India as the 1857 Indian rebellion grew mor ... Show More
58m 32s