What is This?
A scholarly endeavor to make history more accessible and engaging. Here, you’ll find captivating essays and stories primarily from India, but also from other places that inspire wonder, awe, and thrill. Stories you either never heard of or did but not the way they went down.
History is boring. Just a confusing, sleep-inducing collection of dates and names nobody feels driven enough to care about today. But history is also stories. Stories with the power to thrill, to shock, to mesmerize—to inspire awe. My objective is to trigger strong emotions with each story I tell. Not of contempt but of wonder. Every story you read here will make you go “damn!” at least once if not multiple times before it ends. If it makes you exclaim, my job is done.
Because after exclamation, comes exploration.
History is also contested. More battles are fought over it than have been in it. Misinformation, disinformation, fabrication, obfuscation—a whole host of dark forces are constantly at work to distort its character to suit a whole host of political and ideological agenda. My objective is to counter these dark forces with the light of objectivity and rigor.
History with the rigor of science, is what I strive to do.
And history with the rigor of science, is what I hope you seek too.
Why Support?
By subscribing, you’re not just gaining access to exclusive content—you’re supporting a mission to bring well-researched, accurate, and enthralling historical narratives to a broader audience. Your support enables me to:
Conduct in-depth historical research
Provide high-quality, long-form content
Foster a community of curious minds
Challenge and debunk popular myths
What Are You Signing Up For?
A thorough exploration of the historical landscape, delivered straight to your inbox.
Expect enthralling narratives drawn from across the globe and through time, spanning prehistory, antiquity, and even the last decade. You’ll gain insights into the rich heritage of India and the broader currents of world history. You’ll also witness objective scrutiny of traditional scholarship, supported by an abundance of good-quality references.
I occasionally do history threads on Twitter too, but I actively strive to keep the two formats separate.
Types of Articles
Stories (Free until archived): Fun, shocking, and mind-bending nuggets from history, usually under 2,000 words. These stories aim to thrill, and make history feel alive and relevant.
Research Articles (Paid): Deep dives into historical controversies, myths, and lesser-known narratives. These articles can exceed 5,000 words, sometimes even reaching 30,000 words. They are demanding but rewarding for both the reader and the researcher, and hence take days, sometimes weeks, to put together.
Is There a Paywall?
Short answer:
Yes.
Long answer:
Delightful as the process may be, it still takes time to research, assort, organize, and draft. It takes resources. It takes sacrifices. So yes, there is a paid subscription. While there’s immense value to your subscription in terms of the content it opens you up to, but it’s not just about that. Your subscription is also about supporting the philosophy of truth. This is a long-term exercise to de-propagandize history, and it cannot sustain without your support.
Subscriber Benefits
Access to exclusive, in-depth research articles
Invitations to community discussions and events
Regular updates and previews of upcoming content
The satisfaction of supporting independent historical research
Discounts
Students: Enjoy a lifetime discount of 50% on annual subscriptions with a student email. See here for more.
Groups: Select the “group” tab during registration for additional group offers.
Comments and Community
Comments and welcome, lively discussions are encouraged.
When participating, please aim for a respectful and thoughtful exchange—picture this as an intellectually diverse gathering of mature adults. Schandillia.com attracts readers from a wide range of political and ideological backgrounds. Please discuss politics and ideology only if the post directly addresses such matters. Continuous breaches of this rule, along with any form of insult, provocation, hostility, or attempts to incite unnecessary drama, will result in a ban.
To maintain high-quality discourse, low-effort comments may be removed without notice. Posting AI-generated comments is not wise either and will also lead to a ban. If you believe a ban has been imposed mistakenly or unfairly, please contact me via Twitter.
Payment Issues
If you are experiencing difficulties with your card while trying to purchase a subscription, the issue may be due to interactions between your bank, local regulations, and our payment processor, Stripe. Unfortunately, this is beyond my control. One way to address this is by contacting your bank or card provider. However, this might be time-consuming and not always fruitful. There are two alternatives.
UPI
For those familiar with UPI® (Unified Payments Interface), commonly used in India through applications like Google Pay®, PhonePe®, BHIM®, etc., you can use my UPI address: schandillia@scb. Here is the QR code for easy scanning:
Bank Transfer
If UPI is not convenient for you, and you much prefer a traditional bank transfer, here are the necessary details:
Bank: Standard Chartered Bank Branch: Koramangala, Bangalore Account Number: 45510991808 Account Holder: Amit Schandillia IFSC: SCBL0036073
Before using either of these two methods, please shoot me a message so I can manually upgrade you to a paid subscription!
Unless you inform me, I will have no way of knowing who made the payment.
If you still encounter issues, you may need to continue resolving them with your bank. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Social Media
I maintain an active presence on Twitter (for some reason, still reluctant to call it “X”), a not-so-active presence on Instagram, and have no plans of entering a third anytime soon. I am @schandillia on both.
While Twitter is for general soapboxing, I do sometimes tweet interesting threads on the subject—mostly history but sometimes also other random topics like philosophy, science, and current affairs. These threads do not follow a strict routine so at times you’ll find two to three in a single week, and then none for over a month. But the goal is to corral the practice into a more disciplined, predictable quantum.
Published Works
Don’t Forward That Text! Separating Myths from History on Social Media by HarperCollins
India Uncharted: History You Missed in Class by Storytel India
