Hastings

Coordinates: 50°51′23″N 0°34′22″E / 50.8563015°N 0.5728745°E / 50.8563015; 0.5728745

Hastings /ˈheɪstɪŋz/ is a historic town and borough in the county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, on the south coast of England. The town is located 24 mi (39 km) east of the county town of Lewes and 53 mi (85 km) south east of London, and has an estimated population of 90,254, which makes it the 66th largest settlement in the United Kingdom.

Historically, Hastings can claim fame through its connection with the Norman conquest of England and because it became one of the medieval Cinque Ports. Hastings was, for centuries, an important fishing port; although nowadays less important, it still has the largest beach-based fishing fleet in Europe.The town became a popular spot for 'taking the waters' (therapeutic bathing in the sea) in the 1760s, and then, with the coming of the railway, a seaside resort.

History

Early history

The first mention of Hastings is found in the late 8th century in the form Hastingas. This is derived from the Old English tribal name Hæstingas, meaning `the constituency/followers of Hæsta'. Symeon of Durham records the victory of Offa in 771 over the Hestingorum gens, that is, "the people of the Hastings tribe.", Hastingleigh in Kent was named after that tribe. The place name Hæstingaceaster is found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 1050, and may be an alternative name for Hastings. However, the absence of any archaeological remains of or documentary evidence for a Roman fort at Hastings suggest that Hæstingaceaster may refer to a different settlement, most likely that based on the Roman remains at Pevensey.

Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of India from 1773 to 1785. He was accused of corruption and impeached in 1787, but after a long trial he was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1814.

Early life

Hastings was born in Churchill, Oxfordshire in 1732 to a poor father, Penystone Hastings, and a mother, Hester Hastings, who died soon after he was born. He attended Westminster School where he was a contemporary of the future Prime Ministers Lord Shelburne and the Duke of Portland as well as the poet William Cowper. He joined the British East India Company in 1750 as a clerk and sailed out to India reaching Calcutta in August 1750. Hastings built up a reputation for hard work and diligence, and spent his free time learning about India and mastering Urdu and Persian. He was rewarded for his work in 1752 when he was promoted and sent to Kasimbazar, an important British trading post in Bengal where he worked for William Watts. While there he received further lessons about the nature of East Indian politics.

Uday Prakash

Uday Prakash (born January 1, 1952) is a Hindi poet, scholar,journalist, translator and short story writer from India. He has worked as administrator, editor, researcher, and TV director. He writes for major dailies and periodicals as a free-lance writer. He has also received several awards for his collection of short stories, Mohan Das.

Personal life

Background

Prakash was born on 1 January 1952, in the backward village of Sitapur, Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, India. He was raised by and given primary education there by a teacher. He graduated in Science and obtained his Master’s degree in Hindi Literature, receiving a Gold Medal from Saugar University in 1974. From 1975-76 he was a research student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU); He was imprisoned as a passionate communist party member. He later lost interest in political ideology.

Career

In 1978 Prakash taught as an Assistant Professor at JNU, and its Imphal Center for Post Graduate Studies. In 1980 he left academia, to become Officer-on-Special-Duty with the Madhya Pradesh Department of Culture. At the same time, he was Controlling Officer of the Bhopal Rabindra Bhawan, and assistant editor of Poorvagraha, a journal of Hindi literary criticism. (He was later critical of the Hindi literary establishment including Ashok Vajpeyi, who he worked for at Poorvagraha.)