It is always a pleasure to hear a good conspiracy theory. While people enjoy giving rise to new conspiracy theories, very few make it to the center stage. Here is a list of the Top 10 Indian Conspiracy Theories.
10. India Still a Colony of the Queen of England
The theory goes by that Transfer of Power Agreement of 1947 by which India was declared independent implied that India will continue to be the Commonwealth Nation, formerly known as British Commonwealth Nation. Therefore all the Commonwealth nations including India are still a colony of the Queen. The theory goes to lengths by saying that our national song, “Jana Gana Mana” was originally written in the praise of Queen and the names of only the territories under British India were included in our national song. It is said that Queen of England does not need a visa to visit her colonies and a lot of furore was raised in Parliament of India during her visit to India in 1997 without a visa. This theory was in particular raised by Rajeev Dixit, who was a famous social activist. He was known particularly to raise his voice for various social issues.
9. Bhagat Singh’s Execution
Bhagat Singh is considered one the most influential revolutionary of the Indian Independence Movement. The daring acts of Bhagat Singh during the revolution included murder of Assistant Superintendent of Police, John P. Saunders and the 1929 Central Legislative bombing. Singh was later arrested and charged with attempt to murder and sentenced to execution. The conspiracy theory is that Mahatma Gandhi had an opportunity to stop Singh’s execution, but refrained from doing so. Another version of the theory is that Gandhi actively conspired with British to execute Singh because he became a threat to Gandhi as a leader of the Independence Movement. While Gandhi appreciated Singh’s patriotism, he never approved his violence actions.
8. India’s Ancient Nuclear Warfare
This is an interesting one. As per the theory, a heavy layer of radioactive ash covering 3 square miles was found 10 km west of the city of Johdpur, Rajasthan and on further investigation, scientists unearthed an ancient city. It further goes to relating this with Mahabharata’s verses from Drona Parva of K.M. Ganguly’s translation, “The passage tells of combat where explosions of final weapons decimate entire armies, causing crowds of warriors with steeds and elephants and weapons to be carried away as if they were dry leaves of trees.” Myself being a native of Jodhpur, personally, I have never heard of any such ancient city excavated. On digging further on this topic, the quotes related to this theory from Mahabharata were actually referenced from 1963 English translation of the book, Morning of the Magicians, and later references from later writers copied that book without checking the source. According to the authors, the passages record the blinding explosion, fallout from the blast, the ensuing radiation burns, loss of hair and fingernail. This books turns out to be a case of bad translation. The verses from the original English translation of the Mahabharata that comes even close to the quotes from the book are, “When the next day came, Camva actually brought forth an iron bolt through which all the individuals in the race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas became consumed into ashes. Indeed, for the destruction of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas, Camva brought forth, through that curse, a fierce iron bolt that looked like a gigantic messenger of death. The fact was duly reported to the king. In great distress of mind, the king (Ugrasena) caused that iron bolt to be reduced into fine powder. (Mausala Parva, sec. 1).” As you can understand from the passage that the bomb was actually a bolt (scepter) that the king destroyed before it could be used. With my part of the research, I would call this theory busted.
7. Agni V Missile’s Range
Agni V is a solid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missile developed by DRDO. It is fifth in the line of Agni series of missile developed by India. It was successfully test launched on April 19, 2012. There have been doubts raised about the actual range of Agni V. According to initial comments by DRDO’s chief, the exact range of the missile was confidential, but later he reported it to be in the range of 5500-5800 Km. It was developed with a targeted range of 5000-8000 km. It does raise some doubts because Agni IV had a weight of 17000 kg with an operation range of 4000 and Agni V has a weight of 50000 kg with official range of 5800 km. Chinese experts felt that the missile has the potential range of 8000 km and that it was deliberately downplayed by Indian officials.
6. The Nine Unknown Men
This theory alleges that a secret society was founded by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka around 270 BC to protect and develop knowledge that if falls into the wrong hands would be dangerous for the humanity and that nine unknown men were entrusted with protecting the nine books of secret knowledge. The nine books entrusted to these nine men is said to contain information on topics ranging from psychological warfare, physiology, microbiology, alchemy, communication including communication with extraterrestrials, gravity and antigravity devices, cosmology including hyperspace and time travel, light and sociology.
5. Taj Mahal or Tejo Mahalaya
According to this famous conspiracy theory, Taj Mahal was originally an ancient Shiva Temple, Tejo Mahalaya, which the Moghul Emperor Shahjahan took by force from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. There is even a book published titled “Taj Mahal: The True Story” by P.K. Oak on this theory. In his book, he points out a number inconsistencies based on historical facts and Taj Mahal’s architecture to expound on his views. In 2000 Supreme Court of India dismissed Oak’s petition to declare that a Hindu king had built it and in 2005 similar petition was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court.
