Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
Winston Churchill.
Preface
Any student of history cannot stop wondering that how a culturally, politically and socially advanced nation with mighty resources of men, materials, military might and ruled magnificently by majestic sovereigns had been mastered by different lowbred, loutish foreign invaders continuously for centuries, viz., three centuries by Moghuls and two by the British. Is it not prudent and profitable on our part today to ponder over the foibles, frailties and faults, elucubrate enough to educate ourselves and avoid recurrence of the fatal blunders? Let us look at a few instances in history where we need not have lost to our enemies only if our ancestors had been a little more shrewd, sapient and sagacious:
Here are just a few instances:
The Battle of the Hydaspes also known as Battle of Jhelum
When Alexander crossed borders into India, Ambhi, the king of Taxila, accorded a warm welcome to him. He bestowed immense gifts on him and accepted his suzerainty. What made him to behave in such a supine manner was that with the help of Alexander, he wanted to take revenge on his local rival king Porus. Many of the other smaller chiefs of the area also submitted to the Greek invader without fighting. However, Porus, the only brave and powerful ruler between Jhelum and the Chenab, refused to surrender and decided to stand up to the foreign invader. While, as expected, the Greek historians continue to maintain that Alexander won Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes, there is another version which says that he not only lost to Porus but was utterly exhausted and was forced to flee from the field and leave India forever.
Now, but for the pusillanimity of Ambhi and the poltroonery of other chiefs, the invader would not have entered our nation at all. Is it not?
The Battle of Rawar [now known as Aror] and the entry of Islam:
Raja Dahir (663 – 712 CE) a brahmin ruler was the last Hindu king of Sindh (in present-day Pakistan).
Throughout his reign, Maharaja Dahir had to face invasions from the Umayyad Caliphate which had grown quite powerful by that time. Dahir defeated the Arabs twice in pitched battles during the twin battles of Debal in which the invading Arab commanders Ubaidullah and Budail or Bazil were killed by Sindhis under Dahir’s son Jaisiah.[9][10]
This led to the fateful expedition by Muhammad bin Qasim. Since Dahir was quite powerful and brave, It wasn’t an easy task for him to conquer area between Karachi and Multan (approx 900 KM) in a single go. He enlisted the support of local tribes such as the Meds and also the support of the Buddhist rulers of Nerun, Bajhra, Kaka Kolak and Siwistan as infantry to his predominantly-mounted army, Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Dahir and captured his eastern territories which were added into the Umayyad Caliphate. Thus the initial passage for entry of islamic invaders was paved by our own people. Sindh is referred to as the Bab-ul Islam ( transl. ‘Gateway of Islam’), as it was one of the first regions of the Indian subcontinent to fall under Islamic rule.
Dodo and Chanesar – bitter story of betrayal by an envious brother:
Soomra dynasty ruled Sindh between the years 1026 and 1356. Dodo and Chanesar were step bothers of the ruling king. After the death of the father crown was offered to the eligible one, Dodo. Chanesar was upset and angry. He did not even accept the throne offered by his brother as a sacrificial gesture. Instead, he took revenge, went to Delhi and invited Allauddin Khilji to invade Sindh. The forces came face-to-face in the vast Run of Kutch near Wagh Kot. The battle lasted seven days. Dodo led his army with great resilience, but Chanesar tricked them by digging a trench. Dodo’s horse fell in the trench and landed on a spear that penetrated Dodo’s body.
After Dodo, his only sister, Baghi Bai, hiding her face in a turban, led the battle and was martyred in the battlefield.
Meanwhile Khalji’s attack on his own land and people had induced second thoughts in Chanesar. He began to hate Alauddin for his excesses against Sindh but it was too late. He is believed to have died fighting Alauddin.
Second Battle of Tarain:
Muhammad Ghori was the ruler of the Turks, while Prithviraj Chauhan was the Rajput ruler of India. Muhammad Ghori was defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan in the first battle of Tarain. Peithviraj’s own cousin Jaichand was ruling Kannauj, who had ambitions to establish himself as the paramount ruler of the entire North India and he found to his utter resentment that the mighty Prithviraj was an insurmountable obstacle to his dream. He betrayed Prithviraj and openly helped Ghori in the second battle of Tarain and Prithviraj was defeated. The tragic irony is that the notorious traitor was later killed by the same Ghori in the battle of Chandawar.
In Tamil Nadu history, we invariably find the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas and Pallavas always fighting with each other. Once, only once in recorded history they joined together and that too, not for any noble cause, but to fight with and kill king Pari, lauded for his philanthropy!
The Present Situation
What we have given above are just a few of the hundreds of such events in our history. If we start chronicling all such instances it will run into several volumes akin to Maha Bharatam. We, therefore, halt here.
Past is past. Have we learnt anything till date?
Let us now consciously, rationally, dispassionately analyse the present predicament of our society. Partite, pathetic, poignant, full of primitive instinct among several groups prone to fight with each other at the drop of a hat! We do not need even a hat for that purpose! The britishers divided us with venomous motives on religious lines when they were shell shocked at our admirable unity as a single nation during the First War of Independence. They immediately destroyed our original noble caste system through Macaulay’s education formula. A few stray instances of discrimination were magnified through aggressive propaganda and an indelible impression of upper and lower castes was successfully fabricated, thus constructing artificial classes among us as backward, forward etc. We have fallen a victim and we still continue to fight with each other. Now, neither the original caste systems nor the pseudo ones are existent but we continue to carry on our animosities with renewed vigour, quoting an irrational, imaginary phrase, ‘caste discrimination’, with a few of our socially powerful groups vociferously and unjustifiably claiming and cornering larger chunk of fruits from the society to the detriment of genuinely deserving groups, inciting their envy in the process. To add further fuel to the divisive psychology, every opposition party is asking for in deafening decibels, the most deleterious demand of ‘Caste based census’ , which will be the final nail on the coffin of National Integration!
Conclusion
Nothing is achieved by simply blaming others and expecting them to be honest and receptive to correct themselves.
In a democracy, we, the citizens a.k.a. king makers, have as much responsibility as the leaders in ensuring healthy functioning of the entire systems. We should all resolve to
1. Hold ourselves as an integral part of the entire nation in all our thoughts, words and deeds;
2. Eschew crooked, compartmental considerations and treat each Bharatiya as our own brother and always work for his welfare;
3. Elect only honest, altruistic, upright candidates during elections;
4. Positively participate in the political process by involving ourselves in all national forums;
5. Keep our physical environment clean and elegant; also, radiate feeling of friendliness and fondness among neighbours; Help them as much as we can; join them in all festivities;
6. Always contemplate as to how much and in how many ways we can contribute to the progress of our motherland, instead of how we can gain maximum from the national resources. ‘Give more and take less’ should be our motto;
7. Learn to converse in many Bharatiya languages and interact with people in all regions;
8. Respect the National flag, National anthem and other national symbols; Ensure our progeny also imbibe those qualities; Let patriotism and virtuous living be their guiding force in their lives;
9. In short, Unity should be our blueprint; Patriotism should be our watchword.
Parasuram Sharma is a retired bank officer and an octogenarian whose interests include Sanathana Dharmam, Samskritam, history and politics.
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