How Hindus Fought To Keep India Hindu Againt Islam

[Bodhi]

mAna siMha the rAShTrakUTa

The recent discussions spawned by the rAjapUta jettisoned by the faux-hindutva party directed us to look into certain issues about the relation of his clansmen with a maverick leader of the rAThora-s, mahArAjA mAna siMha of jodhapura, in whom we find a good case study of considerable interest.

While mAna siMha is no hero, nor is he pretending to be, in our view his character still represents the collective contemporary Hindu psyche, with all their aspirations and consciousness as well as weaknesses and helplessness, of that sAndhya period when on one hand the Moon of the Hindu Resurgence was on the rise, and on the other the grahaNa wrought upon it by the mlechcHa-ketu was also imminent, an eclipse from which the Hindu fate never seems to have fully recovered.

In the tumultuous struggle of centuries fought by the mahArANA-s of mewADa, from saMgrAma siMha to pratApa siMha, against the hordes upon hordes of Islamites, none had joined them for longer, and watered the desert battlefields with their blood more plentifully, than the ‘hara-hara-mahAdeva’ shouting fierce hADA-s of koTA-bUndI and the rAThora-s of mArawADa, those North-West-wardly extraction of the legendary rAShTrakUTa-s from South.

Since the days when their contingents had fought under the Generalissimo of bhojadeva the pramAra in annihilating the Moslem barbaranins from ghazanA, to the era when they had sent their Princes and Generals to serve under the columns of mahArANA sAMgA against bAbUr, where they valiantly dyed kAlindI with their blood on the fateful day in biyAnA, to the era when they preferred to get slain in the samara rather than yield to the suzerainty of the moghul tyrant (until a black episode of their history which they recall as an eternal disgrace and curse upon themselves), to the time when now although yoked under the overlordship of shAhajahAn they perpetually remained in rebellion until gaining a virtual independence: their blood appears to have never seemed too costly a merchandise to them, for the honour of their five-coloured pacharaMgA mast.

Then emerging from the dark pall of the moghal sway, it was theirs that was the first rAjapUta sword, represented in legendary General durgA dAsa rAThora, the first among all rAjapUta-s of his time, that rose to strike down at the writ of awrangzib and reclaim a complete swarAja for mArawADa, as was being done at the same time in their ancestral country in South by the son of cHatrapati, to whom he had personally met to hand over the custody of the rebellious son of awrangzib, and giving a taste of his own medicine to the Islami maniac, had kept a Moghal princess, a grand-daughter of awrangzib, in a respectful detention in mAravADa until awrangzib himself begged for the demand of whatever ransom and terms of release. Their connection to cHatrapati goes further back to those days when it was through the intelligence sharing and guidance of the Lord of maru-s, jasawanta siMha rAThora, still counted in the first row of all time great rAjapUta warriors, who had secretly sought a meeting with shivAjI on the dense outskirts of pUnA and not only guided him about the designs which awrangzib had laid for the Rising Sun of hinduvAnA, to use the term bhUShaNa uses, but also tacitly helped him get the better of shAistA khAn by silently withdrawing the rAjapUta-s troops from the fort on the night of the operation. (Incidentally, both shivAjI and jasawanta siMha shared a lot in common: the similarity of the cunning they had independently employed in their early careers; both of their sons were sent to torturous death by awrangzib; even the year when both of them breathed their last is the same, but this interesting subject we shall broach on some other occasion.)

In short, of rAThora-s is a saga of those qualities of valour, cunning and loyalty to motherland, which every rAjapUtAnI of marriageable age seeks to find in her future husband, and when she becomes sagarbhA, prays to bhavAnI for the fruit of her womb to be endowed with.

Such is the valiant clan whose leader our subject became at a time when the Hindu History was staring at a major crossroad. The epoch of the time of his birth was such that the maharaTTA power was still holding considerable sway generally from coast to coast in dakShiNa and while much mismanaged and neither as united nor spirited as they used to be under the early peshavA-s, their writ was still running in the Gangetic plains from dillI to va~Nga. A flowering Hindu kingdom erected a little earlier in the himAlaya by the blessed pR^ithvI nArAyaNa shAha was already flourishing in nepAla. In North-West, the followers of gobinda siMha had effectively subjugated the Islamites to create a powerful kingdom that sprawled from the plains of pa~nchanada to as far west as knocking gAndhAra and as far North as enveloping the entire kashmIra; the fierce and rustic jATa-s had all but completely ejected afghAn savages from the place of our birth; and the remaining centers of Moslem power were now limited to being pale patches upon the mAnachitra of Hindu Nation like the receding pimples from the skin of a swiftly recoveing patient of small-pox. The year was 1804 when the destiny of young mAna siMha saw him take the mettle of jodhapura, which he attributed to the blessings of his guru, a miraculous nAtha yogI.

His ascension, like his many counterparts of contemporary landscape was not smooth, indeed it happened against all odds. We shall do injustice to the colourfulness of events if we omit some of those interesting backgrounds.

His grandfather, rAjA vijaya siMha rAThora, had several wives and children and grand children, and although well past the prime of his youth he fell in amour with a beautiful damsel from a rich oswAla family of his capital. The whole matter caused much scandal across mAravADa, but the antidote of the prospect of losing repute was not strong enough to subdue the affliction caused by the arrows of rati’s husband! Marriage, although vijaya siMha desired so, was disallowed to him by his priests and nobles, so the elderly rAThora simply took the lady of his infatuation as a concubine. Soon it seems his heart sank in the passion for this rUpasI from one depth to the other and infatuation turned to devotion. The young object of his dote, on the other hand, was not so selfless and demanded equal rights as his other wives, and treated the old king with no dignity; on one occasion she is reported to have thrown her sandals at him. The royal lover, ripe in body but teenager at heart, finally decided to install upon her all the legal rights that his other legally wedded rAjapUtAnI queens had, including giving her a real heir of his own vIrya. To this effect, and biologically being too old to put a child in her lap, he decided to adopt a young grandson of his own, with the lady of his love as the adopting mother, and declared the child, this grandson turned son, our mAna siMha, the yuvarAjan.

This way, while mAna siMha legally superseded his several uncles and biological father, who incensed at being deprived of their birth rights and supported by the nobles disgusted by the behaviour of their king, plotted and eventually dethroned the old king and had the lady murdered. A wily uncle of his, bhIma siMha took the throne, followed by a bloody liquidation of all other competitors except one, the young mAna siMha, who survived because he was at the time away in the fort of Jhalore, which was not in the immediate reach of the arms of jodhapura, and although the assassin bhIma siMha later laid many sieges to Jhalore, he did not succeed in liquidating mAna.

Growing up in seclusion, away from his country and without care of any parents, mAna siMha once chanced upon meeting a nAtha siddha while wandering in the araNya, and the rest of the story is in the template of what we have heard on many instances, now in relation to bappA rAvala and now in the rise of pR^ithvI nArAyaNa of nepAla. Although having no hopes for future, living a life of deprivation, and being captured and executed appearing a matter of time, his fate took a surprise turn, which he attributed to the blessings of the yogI, when suddenly in mid of a siege usurper-assassin bhIma siMha died without any apparent cause, allowing mAna siMha to swiftly claim, with a small band of his armed followers, his legal right to the throne founded by his illustrious ancestor jodhA siMha rAThora.

When he assumed office, he was faced with two challenges: one, the sindhiyA-s of Gwalior refused to recognize the sovereignty of mAravADa and threatened a war. Second, some of the nobles loyal to bhIma siMha pretended that a wife of bhIma siMha was pregnant at the time of his death, and the posthumous child born in secrecy was the legal heir to throne, not mAna.

But it was another event which might seem trivial and unnecessary to an uninitiated but will be immediately understood and felt, by those familiar with the rAjapUta psyche, which caused a long drawn war and resulted in much bloodletting for which rAjapUta-s were always ready.

As we know, mewADa is the most sacred seat of rAjapUta pride, indeed the pride of India. Up until the late times, no Hindu king at least of North India would be legitimized until he receives the approval of this house. It was no wonder that shivAjI always aspired to declare his lineage to be from this house, and the brAhmaNa-s of kAshI were presented written letter of approval from the then rANA before shivAjI’s rAjyAbhiSheka would be performed. Even saradAra vallabha bhAI paTela, the Iron Man, had first approached mewADa before any other state for the accession to the Republic of India, and the signature of the rANA of mewADa was the first on the instrument, before any other, and likewise after the Consitution was accepted, the first President of the Republic, Dr. rAjendra prAsada, rode on the first republic day from rAShTrapati bhavana to Red Fort on the royal elephant sent by the rANA, as a symbolic gesture of mewADa’s goodwill towards the democracy.

So, even if physically weakened at times, the house of bappA rAvala had always reserved the universal claim on being the first of all the rAjapUta clans. Marrying one’s daughter into the mewADa house, to the pure bloodline of the rANA-s, the living descendants of rAmachandra and very regents on earth of mahAdeva, is a matter of much prestige for any rAjapUta clan, what to say of receiving the hand of a sisodiyA daughter in matrimony!

A princess of mewADa named kR^iShNA kumArI was the daughter of bhIma siMha, the then rANA, and she was reputed as much for the qualities becoming of a good rAjapUtAnI as for her looks. Before his death, bhIma siMha of jodhapura had approached the eponymous rANA with matrimonial proposal for himself with this princess. This was natural as the rAThora-s were always considered more preferable matrimonial allies by the house of mewADa, examples of which include such names as mIrAbAI, a rAThora princess by birth and sisodiyan queen by marriage, or the mother of jasawanta siMha rAThore, a mewADian chief princess. But before rANA could have responded, the matter simply ended with the untimely death of bhIma siMha rAThore, and allowed another prince, jagata siMha kacHavAhA, the prince of jaipur, to approach rANA for the fair hand of kR^iShNA.

The marriage was very important for the house of ambar, who with all their fat purse gained from the centuries of alliance with moghals, were suffering due to the same cause, from a low prestige. They were considered almost next to an outcast by more important of the 36 clans of rAjapUta-s, since that day when mahArANA had refused to see the face of and dine with the kacHavAhA prince and envoy of turuShka because not only had the house of ambar accepted the suzerainty of the Moslem but also given them their daughter in marriage! But now, with the changed landscape, the glory of jaipur can be instantly restored in the eyes of other houses, if the present rANA would agree to the matrimonial alliance, that too of the famed princess kR^iShNA.

But this was not acceptable to rAThora pride. With young mAna on the cushion of jodhapura being available to replace bhIma siMha in the previous proposal, rANA’s even considering to give the fair hand of sisodiyA princess to the lowly kacHavAhA-s was not any less than a sacrilege! It should be noted here that lately the rAThora face was not altogether clean of the same blot too, and they had on multiple occasions married their daughters into moghals; indeed the famous jodhA was a rAThorian, and even the last recorded marriage of any rAjapUtAnI to a moghal, was also of a rAThorian princess, the daughter of ajita siMha rAThora. It is possible that it was from the same motivation as that of the kacHavAhA-s that the hand of kR^iShNa became such a matter of prestige for rAThora-s too.

They declared a war upon jaipur and its allies.

Continues…

[Bodhi]

Military strength of the kacHavAhA-s alone was formidable enough, but when others joined ranks against mAna, including the house of bIkAnera, the French-trained and led infantry of sindhiyA-s, the paid afghAn mercenaries, and the detractor fractions of rAThora-s, the build up simply made jodhapura army look like a marriage party. Faced with such an asymmetrical equation mAna suffered major losses and the jaipura confederacy rapidly ran over mAravADa and invested the very capital of jodhapura. The career of mAna seemed to be done with before it had even taken off.

But the asymmetry of forces arrayed against him was only to make his subsequent turn around in the conflict appear as miraculous as his recent ascent to the throne. When everything seemed to be going against him, in a surprise reversal of fate he turned the tables by luring afghAn mercenaries with promise of bribery (although once his object was met he would suspend the payments of promised installments, a characteristic of mAna to which we shall return). The afghans, whose loyalty was ever flexible to align with the highest bidder unless there was a jehAd, took an about turn and unleashed a series of devastating plunders in the domain of jaipur, allowing a forward force of mAna to dash directly to kacHavAhA capital, forcing the gates of jaipur to be shut down for the first time since the founding of the city. This compelled jagat siMha to abandon the siege of jodhpura and rush to secure his capital, only to find his returning army charged at from two sides by the jodhapura detachments, causing a total stalemate for him. On other fronts, through the diplomacy of his kAyastha and vaishya envoys, mAna successfully extracted the conduct of neutrality from bIkAnera and other houses, although his efforts of engaging holkars in neutralizing sindhiyA-s proved futile.

Pressed badly and the conflict proving more costly than estimated, jaipur abandoned kR^iShNa’s hand and desperately proposed to jodhpura a restoration of friendship, which was accepted and sealed through a reciprocal matrimonial alliance: mAna married a kaChavAhI princess and jagata siMha a rAThorian.

Besides his regular force, mAna had the support of an interesting band of militant sAdhU-s fighting under the command of a sanyAsI general named mahanta karmadAsa bhAratI. [Such bands of militant sAdhU-s of nAgA, nAtha and goswAmI varieties have a history going back several centuries, when they had picked up arms in reaction to the Islamist invaders, generally for shielding the tIrtha-s and maTha-s from any sudden eruptions of allAh-u-akbar, and for resisting the invader until the regular Hindu armies, generally of slower mobility than the AtAtAyins, could relieve them. There is an incident of such a band fighting against Akbar's jehAd in rAjapUtAnA, there is also a less known incident of their liberating ayodhyA for a brief period during awrangzib's time, and in all probabilities they seem to have also inspired the sikh bands under bandA bairAgI. lAmA tArAnAtha also mentions the unsuccessful attempts of raising similar sAdhU armies in north-east against the jehAd of bakhtiyAr khaljI. Thus the sannyAsins of eighteenth century who gave British an armed resistance in va~Nga, an event eternalized by ba~Nkima chandra through his AnandamaTha, had a long vintage. Captain James Tod, who had occasioned to witness first hand such sAdhU fighters during his visits to rAjapUtAnA, rightly applied to them the title of 'Hindu Knights Templar', and Jadunath Sarkar provides a more detailed account in a less circulated work of his dedicated to the history of the nAgA-s. Even to this date, their descendants still symbolically preserve some of the earlier military rigour in some forms. On the outskirts of where we lived in childhood, a nAgA-maTha used to be situated and we have vivid memories of the naked sAdhU-s working out at their mudgara-s].

In an extremely tragic consequence however, kR^iShNA, for whose hand the very confrontation had begun, committed suicide by drinking poison from her father’s hand, and became immortal in the bardic legends. Many accounts provide varying motivations for the tragedy, but in our view the most reasonable seems to be that victorious mAna now turned his attention to mevADa and along with the paid afghan mercenaries pressurized mevADa for the hand of kR^iShNA. Being already engaged to the defeated prince, her marrying mAna would have meant a disgrace for mevADa, but on the other hand since the rAjapUta to whom she was engaged had himself abandoned her hand, retaliation against mAna was also meaningless. Therefore as becoming of a descendant of pratApa, suicide would have appeared more agreeable to kR^iShNA.

Besides this tragedy, the entire episode legitimized mAna’s ascent, established his authority, and further consolidated his faith in the nAtha-s, for whom he established a great maTha and endowed a district he created called mahAmandira comprising several villages, which became a major center of the nAtha-s in west and flourished until British later dismantled its maTha.

mAna siMha, although now in control of his kingdom, is about to face a much more formidable adversity like most of his contemporaries, arising from the altered configurations of geopolitics across the Hindu Nation and the arrival of the Great Game. In the larger picture of the time, maharaTTA-s were now deeply entrenched in internal conflicts with each other, and it seems while they were able to see through the mechanizations of the mlechcHa, were unable to outwit them at it (true to the prophetic assessment of bhUShaNa who had noted a few decades earlier already that, ‘while Hindus remain unsurpassed in manliness and valour, the Europeans are superb at strategizing and trap-laying!’). The inter-maharaTTA rivalry and the British game in encircling them was about to reach its climax, although even now it was the maharaTTA force of dawlatrAva sindhiyA led by his well known French Generals Pierre Cuillier-Perron and Louis Berquin that was controlling the moghal seat in dillI as a maharaTTA puppet, just like mahAdajI sindhiyA had done before him with his own French General Benoît de Boigne. From Indore, the holkars were also growing powerful, now under yashavantarAv holkar, the grandson of legendary general of peshavA, malhArarAv, famous for leading the maharaTTA legions beyond sindhu to hoist the saffron banner in Attock. yashavantarAv also depended upon the French mercenaries in his leading military positions, the most famous of whom was Captain Dudernac.

As an aside, we wonder whether maharaTTA-s could have fared better under Hindu Generals leading the charge, rather than outsourcing the key leadership positions of military, especially of the infantry and artillery, to French. Besides the backlash or jealousy from the native Generals, there is evidence to suggest the frequent treacheries at the worst moment, desertions, and less than spirited fight back by the European mercenaries fighting on the native side. Or whether they could have done better had they at least kept their own Generals in the lead, like the policy mahArAjA raNajIta siMha was following at the same time with much greater success? [While raNajIta siMha had employed Italian Generals like Jean-Baptiste Ventura and Paolo Di Avitabile, French Generals like Claude August Court, and even an American veteran of Russian army Alexander Campbell Gardner, he made it a point to remain suspicious of foreigners and keep them under close control, either directly under his own command on field, or sandwiched between the native senior Generals like hari siMha nAlvA or jassA siMha AhlUvAliyA.]

But coming back to mAna siMha and it is interesting to view these events from the vantage of his position. British had offered a very favorable treaty to the house of jodhapura before mAna had ascended the throne, under the larger policy of keeping the sikha-s, jATa-s, and rAjapUta-s neutral while they liquidated the maharaTTA-s in North India. Their negotiations were on with bhIma siMha rAThora before his premature death. But once mAna took the reign, he outright rejected the British proposal, refused to ratify the treaty which was already ratified by the East India Company and instead sent to them at dillI a draft of his own, with those conditions next to nullified which were the very objects of the British. Governor General Wellesley refused to sign the new treaty, and this was the end of their negotiations with jodhapura. It would seem a bit strange since by this time many others in rAjapUtAnA had already signed some sort of a treaty with British or the other, and rAThora-s being relatively weak would have looked up to some alliance.

But even before he had come to the throne of jodhapura, he was very friendly with yashavantarAv holkar, and had given him support during the latter’s intra-maharaTTA struggles, particularly after holkar had emerged as the potential rallying point in North India having defeated the joint forces of sindhiyA and peshavA on the dIpAvalI eve of 1802.

Once the Anglo-holkar conflicts broke out, mAna took open sides with yashavantarAva, frustrating the English policy of keeping rAjapUta-s neutral. During the 1804 siege of bharatapura, in which jATa-s and Holkars were able to humble the force of famed Lord Lake for a sustained period, not only had mAna sent a horse detachment to assist holkars, but had also brought the holkar family to the safety of his own city where they remained for a whole year despite all the diplomatic pressures the British resident in dillI applied on mAna to hand them over. No wonder, later on during his own contest against jaipur, he had expected his friend from Indore to come to his assistance, although that did not happen.

mAna was probably also inspired by the gorakhAlI-s of kAThamANDU, who were still successful in repulsing the British, and in fact the initial trial ventures by the British towards nepAla were met with such fierce retaliation that the mlechcHa-s were left quite intimidated and tamed. mAna, a spiritual brother of the shAha-s, bound with them in the nAtha brotherhood, probably underestimated the British at the moment.

However within the next decade the entire landscape changed with British gaining all their objectives on almost all the fronts, and the Hindus losing theirs one step by one. By 1805 itself, British had decisively defeated both the holkar and sindhiyA, thrusting on them very restrictive treaties, especially forcing them to cede most of the territories they had acquired beyond their base – holkar all territory to the north of ga~NgA, and sindhiyA all of his to the west of chambal, in south peshavA was already reduced to a puppet, although one more war in the next decade will ultimately seal the fate of the maharaTTA power. Besides, Europe being completely secure with the decisive elimination of Napoleon Bonaparte, angrez were now able to focus on delivering sucker punch in the Indian colony, concentrating all their resources, technology, and man power to this theater.

Keeping the superb strategy and technology aside, we think British surely had a clear upper hand simply from the point of the quality of their battle-hardened military leadership, with such men leading their companies as Maj. General Charles Cornwallis, who had resisted George Washington in battles of New York, Princeton, Philadelphia and Virginia, before now coming to India to redeem his repute; Arthur Wellesley, whose war-resume boasted of extremely diverse experience across the continents ranging from the Flanders Wars along side the Austrians against the French, the naval war against Spanish in Philippines, action in Iberian peninsula, and finally the Waterloo campaign that ended the career of Napoleon, besides being a superb politician - he retired as the PM of UK; Thomas Hislop who had seen action on the British side during the American as well as French Revolutionary Wars, had commanded naval operations against Dutch in West Indies, had successfully led the Siege of Gibraltar defeating joint armies of Spaniards and French, now leading British action against the maharaTTA-s; General Gerard Lake, veteran of American, French and Irish wars; General David Ochterlony, an American colonial product born in Boston and veteran of a variety of battles in America and Europe before arriving in India (famous for his harem in dillI of over a dozen women). We must also say that the Europeans had also gained a very diverse exposure in different theatres even within India, from va~Nga to karNATa and nepAla to maharaTTA country, and the resulting cross-pollination of experience was a huge advantage to them which Hindus lacked at this stage of conflict to a large extent, with the old generation of the Great maharaTTA Generals gone, who had once scaled the whole map of Hindu Nation. Besides, the British Plan already had the solid backing of a very thorough study of India by now and evaluation of its people. Consider this: Captain James Tod had already surveyed the history and geography of the entire rAjapUta country with every single one of its clan - even though they were politically still independent - and had already produced in the first two decade his celebrated ‘Annals and Antiquities of rAjapUtAnA’, not to mention that the European Indology as a discipline was already flourishing with its second generation with the likes of Colebrooke and Schlegel now in chairs, William Jones dead just a couple of years back. In contrast, we seriously doubt if there was even one Hindu at the time who properly knew the basic history and geography of Britain! We must keep these views in mind when evaluating how the native states fared against such a well informed adversary with such a great military exposure, not to mention their technology and strategy for the Great Game.

But what did it mean for mAravADa, and mAna siMha its last independent king? In one single decade all his hopes of independence were dashed and he had come to realize that it was no use openly confronting the British. Those he looked upto, the holkar of indore and shAha of nepAla, had given up, and he himself was now facing renewed internal threats to his throne.

Continued

[ramana]

X-posted from BRF.

Chetak posted in the Distorted Hisotry thread....

http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/issues/30/history.htm


<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->:: ROOTS ::
<b>The myth of "1000 years of Hindu slavery"

M. R. Vaghela
Hindu Voice UK, 26 September 2009</b>

One thousand years of slavery. Millennia of defeat and domination caused by a dogmatic adherence to the doctrine of ahimsa, preventing an effective resistance to foreign domination. This is what most Hindus are brought up to believe about their history.

<b>These and other such theories are happily put forward as history of Hindus for the past 14 centuries and postulated by self proclaimed scholars from both within and without the Hindu fold. It was something I have heard from my youth and accepted without question.</b>

However some thoughts rankled in my mind. <b>If the Hindus were truly slaves for a thousand years plus, then how have we survived to this day with dignity and honour and with a spiritual tradition stretching back to the mists of time and beyond? Many other cultures, civilisations and spiritual traditions have been reduced to museum pieces, but the words of the Holy Vedas are recited in an identical fashion today as they were thousands of years ago when first revealed to the Rishis. This is no mean achievement. How did Hindus survive and manage to maintain a civilisational identity stretching into the dawn of human history? How was Sanatana Dharma kept alive as a living presence in the world, and indeed regenerated over time if the Hindus were slaves for so long? This impelled me to look for the truth myself, and undertake a study of the history of the Hindu people. </b>

The beginning of Hindus’ “thousand years of slavery” is supposed to have begun with the overrunning of India by Muslims of Arab and Turkish origin. <b>It is popularly believed that Hindus put up a feeble defence and that the Islamic armies had a cake walk through India. If we examine at what actually happened, however, we see that Hindus put up a huge struggle, which was eventually victorious.</b>

Following the death of their founder, Muhammad we see the Arab Khilafat expand swiftly over <b>the Middle and Near East, pouring over the deserts of North Africa </b>and crossing the waters to begin a six century <b>occupation of Spain </b>and beyond. The combined might of Christian Europe struggled again and again to reclaim the ‘holy lands’ to end in bitter failure with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, who ruled over a large part of Eastern Europe for centuries.

On the other side, <b>the lands of Iran</b>, home of the ancient and historical Persian civilisation fell to the yet undefeated Arab warriors and within a short period the indigenous culture becoming extinct or expelled, today being largely the confine of museums and relics. The Arab hordes then pushed into the Indian Subcontinent, land of the Hindus, overwhelming the small desert region of Sindh and then attempted to push and conquer the existing Hindu kingdoms. Here however their advance was stopped. <b>With the inspiration of Sant Gorakhnath the warrior clans of the Rajputs united under their legendary king Bappa Rawal and in a series of Battles known collectively as the Battle of Rajashtan inflicted a heavy defeat on the Arab invaders in 738 CE. Any further advances by the Arabs were repelled, impelling the formation of large organised Hindu states in the centre and west of India.</b> Frustrated by their failures in India <b>the Arabs turned northwards shortly after defeating the Chinese Empire in the Battle of Talas in 751 CE opening the gate for the Islamisation of Central Asia.</b> India remained unaffected for another three hundred years. (the “thousand years of slavery theory” was beginning to shake)

<b>The Islamisation of Central Asia began to grow apace and one by one the ancient Buddhist kingdoms began to totter and fall as tribe after tribe joined the ranks of the growing Muslim religion. The destruction of Buddhism and its centers in the region prompted an exodus towards India, and the conversion of the remaining clans to Islam. The Muslim armies were expanded, filled with the zeal and energy of new converts, who were sent spiraling towards the Middle East to fight the advancing Crusaders under the leadership of Saladin. Another wave of attacks poured towards India resulting in large scale damage and loot from the subcontinent under the leadership of Mahmud of Ghazni around 1000 CE.</b>

<b>Two further centuries passed as further advances were resisted until a breakthrough around 1200 CE allowed the invaders access to the North Indian plains. The remaining Buddhists were slaughtered or converted in an unprecedented orgy of violence and horror. The majority Buddhist regions of Afghanistan, Kashmir and West Punjab joined the crescent banner of Islam. </b>However the conversion of Hindus was slower and the resistance was more fierce. Hindu warrior clans kept up a relentless resistance fighting from the deserts, the mountains and the forests. <b>The heavy cavalry of the Muslim Turks which had proved fatal to the Crusaders of Western Europe were victorious on the plains of North India but this did not prevent an endless cycle of attack and counter attack by the Hindus.</b>

<b>It took nearly another hundred years under the leadership of the infamous Aladdin Khilji for the Muslims Empire firmly established itself in India. This mantle was inherited by the Tughlaqs only to lead to a revival from the Hindu population.</b>

The religious traditions of India had been severely mauled by the endless bloodletting over the past two centuries. <b>Many important institutions and temples were destroyed. Prosperity suffered, as it tends to in times of continuous war. This created a certain weakening of Hindu society. Religion became preserved in rituals which were less and less understood. Sanskrit learning was on the decline. Caste became more rigid. </b>

However, <b>a religious renewal took place in the form of the “Bhakti movement”. A simplified form of Hinduism particularly suitable to the times emerged.</b> A new wave of spiritual teachers preaching that simple devotion and love of God and love of all people and creatures is the simplest root to salvation. A message of defiance and brotherhood from saints and rishis from all corners of India emerged. <b>From Tukram and Namdev from the west of India, from Nanak in Punjab, from Chaitanya in the east and Kabir in the north plus many others, the message of dharma revived itself in the teeth of an implacable enemy. The fearless postulating of the brotherhood of all mankind defied the savagery raging around them as the Turks endeavoured to convert the entire subcontinent to Islam and the Hindus fighting tooth and nail to resist. The Muslim empire seemed to rest on specified military encampments and cities surrounded by a sea of hostile Hindus usually left to their own devices. Hundred of Rajahs and Maharajahs dotted the nation living in virtual independence from the central authorities in which traditions of culture and religion were maintained unchanged through the centuries.</b>

Other larger organised resistance emerged in the<b> Vijaynagara Empire of South India around 1336 CE which consolidated Hindu resistance for over two centuries. In the north the revival of the Rajput kingdoms and the defiance of kings like those of Orissa under the Gajapati Kings, the hills of Punjab under Jasrath Khokhar and the rise of neo Hindu kingdoms in the north east of India along with the entire hill region</b> signaled the revival of Hindu rule over vast tracts of India.

A steady period of Hindu growth then ensued until by the dawn of the 1500’s the southern region of India was dominated by the<b> mighty king of the Vijaynagara Empire, Krishnadevarya and the north by the revival of the valiant Rajputs under the charismatic leadership of Rana Sanga (grandfather of the equally illustrious Rana Pratap).</b>

<b>The tides of history however turned again – with the influx of cannons and other artillery utilised by Babur the Mughal entered into the Indian subcontinent against which the wild charges of the Rajputs and Pathans had no answer. The reckless disregard of their own lives in the defence of dharma saw a series of battles in which the Hindu forces fought quite literally to the last man woman and child, most famously the siege of Chhitor in 1567.</b>

The utter refusal of the Hindus to surrender in the century old tussle with Islam for political control over the subcontinent was a lesson not lost by the new Emperor Akbar. He instead moved away from the tenets of Islam to a new faith of the Din i Ilahi. <b>By following the age old traditions of religious toleration in India he endeared himself to the majority population and through a period of compromise and alliance brought a brief period of peace to the troubled land.</b>

<b>This tenuous alliance was shattered by his descendant Aurangzeb who in his zeal for the establishment of an Islamic state caused an upheaval which left the Mughal Empire fall beyond all hope of repair.</b>

<b>The renewal of the civilisational Hindu-Islam conflict saw the rise of a generation of Sants and holy men inspiring the people for the defence of dharma which saw the might of the Mughals humbled by Rajputs, Marathas, Jats, Satnamis, Ahoms, Sikhs, Bundelas and others. In a cataclysmic wave of defiance the Mughal Empire lay broken and on its ruins rose a number of Hindu states competing for space in the subcontinent.</b>

The inspirational <b>rise of the Maratha king Shivaji and his bold defiance of the Mughal empire in the noontide of its realm </b>is an apt example.

<b>Who did the British wrest control of India from?</b>

When the British came on the Indian scene, <b>it is thought or assumed by many people that he British took control of India from the Mughals. This is not true. In fact, by the time that the British emerged as a major force in India, the Muslim political power in the subcontinent had been virtually cast down.</b>

The situation is best defined by a British author, H.G.Keene
<b>The idea, however, that the British have wrested the Empire from the Mohamadans is a mistake. The Mohamadans were beaten down — almost everywhere except in Bengal — before the British appeared upon the scene; Bengal they would not have been able to hold, and the name of the "Mahratta Ditch" of Calcutta shows how near even the British there were to extirpation by India's new masters. Had the British not won the battles of Plassey and Buxar, the whole Empire would ere now have become the fighting ground of Sikhs, Rajputs, and Mahrattas and others. Except the Nizam of the Deccan there was not a vigorous Musalman ruler in India after the firman of Farokhsiar in 1716; the Nizam owed his power to the British after the battle of Kurdla in 1795), and it was chiefly British support that maintained the feeble shadow of the Moghul Empire, from the death of Alamgir II. to the retirement of Mr. Hastings. Not only Haidarabad but all the other existing Musalman principalities of modern India owe their existence, directly, or indirectly, to the British intervention.</b>

<b>The march of western civilisation ended the Hindu revival at a time when Hindus exercised control over almost the entire subcontinent. But it took Three wars with the Marathas, Two wars with the Sikhs, two wars with the Gurkhas, war with the Jaats, also smaller ranging wars with the Santhals, Sanyasis and many others – all Hindu rebellions.</b>

<b>Hindus unwillingness to surrender culminated in the huge uprising from the predominantly Hindu sepoys in 1857 which almost brought the British Indian Empire to a swift conclusion being the largest anti colonial uprising in history. The end result was 90 years of imperialist rule.</b> This was matched by a concerted disarming of the population by the British rulers, leaving only select regions free from the disarming which were perceived as loyal to the British under the flawed marital race theory. <b>This theory propagated by the forerunners of the concepts of eugenics and Nazism believed the Indian races could not match the British combination of physical and mental facilities. Thus a large percentage of Hindu population, despite holding sway of almost all of the Indian subcontinent were delegated into the non martial section by the British.</b> Other sections believed to be of sufficient physical abilities (but not mental development) were delegated by the Imperialists as ‘martial races’

This flawed theory was propagated as an absolute truth (still followed by some) and together with the disarming of the population led to the diminishing of the martial spirit amongst Hindus.

However the theories propagated by the British found challengers from the Hindus. Spurred by a revaluation of their history and the knowledge of western theories a new revival began to take fruit. <b>From the universal preaching of Swami Vivekananda to the guns of the Anushilan Samiti the Hindus were at the forefront of a growing anti colonial challenge to the most powerful empire in the world. Finally finding control of the subcontinent untenable in the teeth of endless opposition the British Indian Empire collapsed in a wave of unprecedented bloodshed which has seen a slow and steady spread and reach of the Hindu world.</b>

So again, I was stumped by this ‘thousand years of slavery’ theory. I was even more surprised to find this postulated by otherwise very earnest Hindus in the mistaken belief of their own history.

When examining our history I saw a spirit of defiance stretching over a thousand years in the face of implacable and merciless enemies, who put an end to many other cultures and civilisations. The same forces which had overcome virtually every indigenous civilisation in the world had thrown their entire might against India – and failed.

<b>Attack after attack was defeated. Horrific massacres did not force the people to abandon their religion and identity. The destruction of holy places did not see dharma die but rise again and overcome their opponents with the power of truth. The banner of freedom was raised generation after generation despite the best attempts of some vested parties to blur the truths and sacrifices made again and again.</b>

So 150 years of effective rule by the Muhamadans and 90 years of British rule was suddenly expanded into ‘one thousand years of slavery’ an utterly absurd contention is being bandied about like an absolute truth but has failed to hide the facts that remain unaltered in history.

<b>Ancient faiths like Buddhism and Zoroasterism were almost obliterated from the Middle East, Central Asia and India but the Hindus rose in defiance to emerge even stronger at the end of the blood soaked millennia</b>.

Even well wishers of Hindus, lost in their Victorian outlook on India have propagated the same absurdities in total insult of the enduring Hindu spirit. The spirit is best exemplified by the renowned historian <b>Sir Jadunath Sarkar when talking of the legendary Maratha king Shivaji:
He [Shivaji] has proved that the Hindus can still produce not only clerks and soldiers but rulers of men. (…) Shivaji proved that the tree of Hinduism is not really dead – that it rose from the seemingly crushing load of centuries of attack and put forth new leaves and lifted its head to the skies.</b>


<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

So why this psychologocal conditioning by an Independent India?

It was only by blending concepts from Hinduism that Mahatma Gandhi was able to energize the people and lead the Freedom Struggle. So even the Freedom Struggle was a Hindu Movement.

[Guest]

[quote=ramana,Oct 14 2009, 12:24 AM]
X-posted from BRF.

Chetak posted in the Distorted Hisotry thread....

http://www.hinduvoice.co.uk/issues/30/history.htm


[quote]:: ROOTS ::
[b]The myth of "1000 years of Hindu slavery"

M. R. Vaghela
[/quote]

I think Nehru took advanatage of Gandhi's death and imposed his own prejudiced worldview on all Bharti people. He saw the ferocious retaliation in 47 and this must have reinforced his fears. Being a Chance Hindu and telling his secretary that Hindu right ( He was also disdainful toward Sikhs ignoring their sacrifices ) being the main security threat to Nation tells lot about his charachter.
IMHO,Most of material and spiritual furstrations in Bhart Society have roots in the policies and institutions set up by Chacha after sidelining Gandhi.

[ramana]

You should post more often here. BTW, your member # is earlier than mine !

[Guest]

Sorry for using this thread to post an unrelated query

Recently heard a composition from a Veer Rasa Kavi Vineet Chauhan about an incident located in Jodhpur. I loved it but wanted to know more about the actual history. It involved 3 characters - Amar Singh (King) and Jay Singh as well as Bhanu Singh who were heads of 2 clans vying to fight in the frontline of Amar Singh's army.

If somebody has heard about this, could you please post ?

[Bodhi]

<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Oct 14 2009, 04:55 PM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Oct 14 2009, 04:55 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sorry for using this thread to post an unrelated query

Recently heard a composition from a Veer Rasa Kavi Vineet Chauhan about an incident located in Jodhpur. I loved it but wanted to know more about the actual history. It involved 3 characters - Amar Singh (King) and Jay Singh as well as Bhanu Singh who were heads of 2 clans vying to fight in the frontline  of Amar Singh's army.

If somebody has heard about this, could you please post ?
[right][snapback]101960[/snapback][/right]
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If your are sure about the name, then amara siMha rAThore was a general (not king), expelled from his homeland, and famous for challenging shAhajahAn.

[Bharatvarsh]

Wasn't there another Amar Singh, son of Rana Pratap who fought against Jehangir?

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+Oct 24 2009, 11:38 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Oct 24 2009, 11:38 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Wasn't there another Amar Singh, son of Rana Pratap who fought against Jehangir?
[right][snapback]102178[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Amar Singh was eldest son (17 brothers and 5 sisters)
Yes, he was Rana of Mewar, Amar Singh, he was captured around 1613.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AZdCrUxFA...page&q=&f=false

[Bodhi]

<!--QuoteBegin-Bharatvarsh+Oct 24 2009, 11:38 PM-->QUOTE(Bharatvarsh @ Oct 24 2009, 11:38 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Wasn't there another Amar Singh, son of Rana Pratap who fought against Jehangir?
[right][snapback]102178[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

true but Rajesh talked about Jodhpur not mevADa.

[Bharatvarsh2]

> What strategic objective did kargil achieve. It just

> seems to be a repeat of

> 17 foolish acts by Prithvi raj



This is a common error made by many- The ghur

sultankalka Shihabuddin never invaded 17 times and was

never defeated 17 times. His history briefly is as

below:



-After 1175 he invaded Punjab and sacked and burned

Uch...(1)



-In 1178 he diverted south and advanced towards

Gujarat, but here the Indians acted quickly and

rallying under the western Chalukya king MUlarAja II

routed the turkish forces completely forcing him to

retreat...(2)



-Ghuri sent a message to PrithivirAja chAhamAna to

make common cause with him against the Chalukyas.

Prithivaraj however, wise disregarding his stupid

minister's advise to make a common cause iwth Ghuri,

preemptively attacked NaDDula and reconqured it from

the Turks.



-He recovered in 1180 and invaded Sindh...(3)



-The Muhammad Shihabuddin invaded Lavapura (Lahore)

with much slaughter two times in the following two

years...(4+5)



-In 1186 he invaded the Ghaznavid occupied Punjab and

defeated the Sultankalka Khushro Malik and wrested

Punjab...(6)



-1188 The Ghur Sultankalka invaded the ChAhamAna

kingdom and sacked the fort of Tabarhindah killing the

Hindu male populace and raping the women. Hindu

refugees flocked around Delhi alarming the

ChAhamAnas...(7)



-1191 PrithivirAj advanced to to meeting Shihabuddin's

raid and routed him in the great battle of Tarai.

While the Muslims suffered a crushing defeat. The

Indians failed to butcher them to man and allowed

Shihab to get away unharmed. He fled back to Central

Asia leaving Punjab completely undefended...(8)



-1191 PrithivirAj attacked Tabarhindah and reconquered

it from the Muslims. Here the biggest mistake of the

Hindus was not to reconquer and arm Punjab suitably.



-1192 Shihab returned and sacked Tabarhindah again.

This was followed by the second battle of Tarai, the

ChAhamAna army was crushed and Prithiviraj was

captured and tortured to death...(9)



-1192 the Ghur Sultankalka made a second trust towards

Ajayamerupura (Ajmer) and sacked it smashing a Hindu

temple in course of this invasion. The Hindus captured

in this expedition caused slave prices to fall to a

few Dirhams in the Muslim markets...(10)

-1193 The sultankalka invaded Kannauj and slew the

GAhadwala king Jayachandra. He followed this up with

an invasion of vArANsipura slaughtering Hindus with

great savagery and desecrating the holy city...(11+12)



After his viceroy Kutub-ud-din (also his lover?) and

the Turkish adventurer Ikhtiyaruddin Khalji furthered

the violence of Islam in the land of Hind.



Meanwhile Shihab's brother died in Ghazna and he

crowned himself Sultan and immediately launched

himself into another Jihad on the infidels of Hind in

1206 whose exact course is not clear. While on the

north-western reaches of the Sindhu, he was ambushed

by the Khokar chiefs and shot down by an arrow...(13)



Thus ended the carrier of the Moslem brigand who

brought slavery to the whole of northern India through

his 13 invasions. His grave demolished was dug up by

the Mongols under Chingiz during the sack of Ghazna.



The only consolation for us- like watching the Lankans

beat the Pakistanis in cricket.



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianCivi...ssage/5181

[Bharatvarsh2]

http://dharmayuddha.wordpress.com/2010/1...veeragati/

[Bharatvarsh2]

http://jambudveep.wordpress.com/2010/11/...mahakavya/

[Bharatvarsh2]

http://jambudveep.wordpress.com/2010/06/...f-raichur/



We only hear about Plassey and Panipat never about Palkhed, Raichur or the 1st Anglo-Maratha war.



The Prithviraja Vijaya by Har Bilas Sarda:



http://www.megaupload.com/?d=861F2AH2

[Bodhi]

In 1597, on January 19, died mahArANA pratApa siMha, the foremost luminary in the galaxy of all Hindu leaders that raised the standard of tumult to answer the jehAd. But before he died he fulfilled the mission of his life of regaining control over his mAtr^ibhUmi, and even at his deathbed he made his heir and his band of men swear by Lord Ekalinga to continue fighting the battle for Hindu independence.



Never did that dharmAbhimAnI compromise on Hindu liberty and never did he submit even to the lucrative offers of moghal tyrant. His insignia read “जो दृढ राखै धरम कौ ताहि रखै कर्तार”: Those Who Stiffly Protect Dhrama find Protection of The Creator. It is by his grit and that of his followers that the sapling of Hindu revival was kept nourished, which would in next century become the mighty vaTa. Thus while negotiating treaty at Purandar with Jai Singh, cHatrapati recalled mahArANA and his hardships.



But for that vIra-pu~Ngava, all was lost beyond hope, as says surAyajI, a contemporary rAjasthAnI poet:



हिन्दू हिन्दूकार, राणा जे राखत नहीं

तो अकबर एकार, पहो सहो करत परतापसी

हिन्दूपति परताप, पत राखी हिन्दवाणरी

सहे विपति संताप, सत्य सपथ कर आपणी



[Had rANA not kept the Hindu flag independent,

Akbar had all but succeeded in crushing them to joining/becoming Moslems

But O Hindupati Pratap, You kept the Hindu pride undiminished

Even bearing hardships and pains, never did you waver from your grit and truth]



Even a rAjpUt courtier of Akbar, ADhA dUrasA of sirohI, wrote in his “viruddha cHihattarI”:



एही भुजे अरीति । तसलीमत हिन्दू तुरक

माथै निकर मसीत परताप कै परसादसी

रोहै पाताल राण । जाँ तसलीम न आदरै

हिन्दू मुस्सलमाण एक नहीं ता दोय हैं



[When such is the usage of the day that Hindus have to bow low and perform Tasleem to Musalmans,

It is only in your country, O Pratap, that the temples are seen reconstructed where mosques had come up

Only if, O Pratap, you hold the Hindu Banner high and don't acknowledge (Akbar's) suzerainty

Hindus will retain their independence and identity and not get merged with Musalmans]



रोकै अकबर राह । लै हिन्दू कूकुर लखां

बीअर तो बाराह पाडै घणा परताप सी

सुख हित स्याल समाज, हिन्दू अकबर बस हुए

रोसीलो मृगराज पजै न राण परताप सी



[Akbar obstacles the path of pratApa with help from a lakh Dog-Hindus (those who have gone to Akbars side)

But when did they stop the Boar-like march of pratApa! A single vArAha-Hindu is enough.

For sake of comfort some coward jackal-Hindus have taken Akbar as overlord

But when did Lion-Hindus like pratApa ever accept his suzerainty!]



लोपै हिन्दू लाज सगपण रोपै तुरकसूँ

आरज कुल री आज पूंजी राण प्रतापसी



[When Hindu honour has disappeared; they shamelessly give their daughters to musalmans;

O Pratap rANA, today You are the only refuge left for the Aryakula honour]



pratApa siMha, the standard forever of Hindu bravery, had no hesitation to denounce the cowardly deeds of his father and used to openly lament that had udaya not been born between his grandfather Sangram Singh the ‘Hindupat’, and himself, the Moslem rule in hindusthAn would have been wiped out in the time of bAbur himself. (This is not a mere boast)



सांगो धरम सहाय बाबुर सूं भिडियो बिहस

अकबर कदमा आय पडै न राण प्रताप सी

मन अकबर मजबूत! फूट हिन्दवाँ बेफिकर

काफिर कौम कपूत! पकडूँ राण प्रताप सी



[If for the protection of dharma had rANA sAMgA gone to clash with bAbUr

It is for the same reason that pratApa does not give in to Akbar

Akbar's mind is carefree and strong from prevailing disunity amongst the Hindus

But even he knows that amongst Kafirs these are the black sheep; So he goes after Pratap]



Once a rumour was spread in Agra that mahArANA was willing to accept Akbar’s overlordship and had sent such communication to Patsah. Alarmed about this, a rAjpUt prince of bIkAner, Rai Prithviraj who was at Akbar’s court, wrote to pratApa seeking the truth of the matter. He wrote:



pAtal jo pAtsAh bolai mukha hUtA bayaNa

mihara pacHam disa mAh, Ugai kAsap rAvavat

paTakUM mUcHAM pANa, kai paTakUM nija tana karada

dIje likhe divANa, iNa do mahalI bAta ika



[I have been told that pratApa has started calling Akbar his Patsah,

which to me seems as impossible as the Sun rising from the west

But tell me O Regent (of EkaliMga) where I stand -

Shall I proudly put my fingers on my moustaches or sword on my neck?

Just write back which of the two is for me?]



To which pratApa siMha wrote back the below lines which are proudly memorised by every true Rajput:



turaka kahAsI mukha pato iNa tana sUM ikaliMga

Ugai jAhIM UgasI prAchI bIcha pataMga

khusI hUMta pItala kamadha paTako mUcHA pANa

pacHaTana hai jetai patau kalamA sira kevANa

sAMga mUDa sahasI sako samajasa jahara savAda

jhaDa pIthala jIto jhalAM vaiNa taraka sUM vAda



[By Lord Ekalinga, I shall call Akbar Turak alone (and not Patsah),

as surely as the Sun would rise tomorrow from the East.

You may, O Prithviraj, continue proudly stroking your moustaches

As pratApa's sword continues to dangle on the Mughal heads, and,

Let the Sanga's blood be on my hands if I ever rest before crushing them

You would, Prithvi, no doubt, have the better of this quarrel of rumours at the court.]



When the news of pratApa’s death reached Akbars court, it is said that Akbar mourned for his death (so say also the persian sources). At this, a rAjasthAnI poet at Akbar’s court expressed his homage to pratApa like this:



अस लैगो अनदाग पाघ लैगो अणनामी

गौ आडा अवडाय जिको बहतो धुर बामी

नवरोजे नह गयो न गो आतसाँ नवल्ली

न गओ झरोखा हेठ दुनियाण दहल्ली

गहलोता राणा जीती गयो दसन मून्द रसना डसी

निसास मूक भरिया नयन मृतु शाह प्रतापसी !



[Kept his horses unbranded (of mughal seal), Head unbowed and fame untarnished

Carried on his fight against vidharmI yoke merely by his singular fortitude

Never went to Navroz and Atish festivals of Patsah nor mounted guard at his jharokha darshan

O rANA the guhilota! The victory be yours. Even in death you make Patsah speechless and blind

Breathless, Patsah's tongue is stuck in throat and eyes dimmed (by sadness)

[Lalitaditya]

From my post @ http://indicrace.blogspot.com/2011/06/in...ndian.html



Part of the post is specific to Hindu fight against Islam.



Everytime I hear someone say that the Muslims ruled India for thousand years I burst out laughing. Similarly when someone says that the British ruled India for several centuries that's one another time I guffaw out aloud. When you hear such statements you begin to wonder why knowledge of one's own history is so alarmingly absent in the Indians. The Indians have achieved many unprecedented things militarily but no one ever cares mentioning them proudly or writing them in our history textbooks. The other day I checked the history texbook of my neighbour's kid of the CBSE curriculum and I was wondering if it was a history book of India or one of Arabia/Central Asia.



Here are some noteworthy and unprecedented Indic military achievements which you will never hear of in Indian textbooks or in Indian media.



1. The Muslim Arabs faced their major defeat in their expansionism in the Battles of Rajasthan. Muslim Arab caliphates were able to overwhelm Byzantines, Persians, Turks, Spaniards etc etc but they were never able to defeat India militarily and Islamicize India. The Rajputs of India united and handed defeats to the Arabs both on land and in sea enough to convince the Arabs to never try another military adventure on India.

2. A south Indian king Samoothiri Raja handed the Dutch a naval defeat. This was unprecedented in that part of Asia where a European naval power was defeated comprehensively.

3. The army of the kingdom of Mysore routed the British army when it used rockets against them. This was one of the rare cases where the British barbarians were defeated in a battle with more advanced arms used by the enemy 0than in the British possession. The British copied the rockets and came up with the Congreve rockets.

4. The Wester Indian Sikh confederate was able to achieve what no western power or for that matter any other power on earth has been able to achieve. To defeat the Afghans comprehensively IN Afghanistan and station an army in Kabul and other cities without being driven out eventually. The Sikhs returned by choice. The greatest general in history, Hari Singh Nalwa struck terror in the hearts of the Afghans and Afghans ended up wearing a ladies outfit by name Salwar Kameez to escape his wrath. That this same dress is still wor n in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a big LOL moment in Indic Race.

5. The Huns who enjoyed victories in many parts of the world were summarily defeated by the Central Indian Gupta empire.

6. Alexander, self-proclaimedly and supposedly "The Great" was defeated by a small Western Indian kingdom under king Porus. The army of Porus was much smaller than that of Alexander but it can be easily seen that if a 30,000 sized army could wreak havoc on the Greeks - what could the 500,000 sized army of the Central Indian Nanda dynasty have done to the Greeks. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

7. The Central-West Indian Maratha empire was able to defeat the best generals of its time from all around the world. From the Abyssinian generals to Uzbek generals everyone was crushed by the Marathas. Nadir Shah avoided confrontation with the Marathas and sneaked out of Delhi before the Marathas could reach Delhi to help the hapless Mughal emperor.

8. The Mongols were never able to colonize India and do to it what they did to Eastern Europe, Arabs, Persians and the Chinese.



Here's debunking some "facts" errr...lies,



1. The Muslims ruled India for a thousand years.



Muslims ruled parts of India and definitely not for thousand years. The first Muslim attacks (by Arabs) on India happened in the 7th century.They were summarily defeated and sent back to never return again. The next Muslims to taste major success in India were the converted Turks. They stayed put in India for some decades but were eventually replaced by the converted Mongols. It is to be noted that the Mongols during their murderous best were not Islamic and converted only at a later point. The Mughals are crude descendants of the Mongols. The Muslims only had sway in large parts of North-Central India and were held in bay by the Rajputs in the West and the Ahoms in the East. Even though the Rajputs paid tribute and accepted primacy of the Mughals it was always an uneasy relationship. The Mughals were never able to capture South. They were given hell by the Vijayanagara dynasty and then by the Maratha empire. Short lived Muslim dynasties in South like the Madurai Sultanate or the Hyderabad Nizam were all either quickly decimated or made to pay tribute as in the case of the Nizam of Hyderabad. By 1758 Marathas had crossed Narmada and entered Delhi and resoundingly defeated the Mughals. The Mughals from that point had to accept the primacy of the Marathas and paid tribute to them. Further Mughal-Rajput combined adventures were swiftly defeated by the Marathas. That the Indian armed forces today toy with the Pakistani armed forces is testament to the fact that with all conditions equal the Indian Kshatriya can easily own the Islamic Barbarian Ghazi.



2. Hindus-Sikhs never ruled Muslims



By the 1760's Mughal power had largely been decimated and the Marathas were the undisputed rulers of much of India. They reached Attock and were planning to invade the Afghans under Muhammad Shah Durrani. It was not to be, the Marathas lost due to lack of food and supplies but were still able to impose a harsh military cost on Abdali in the 3rd battle of Panipat. Abdali lost so much that he never returned to India. The Marathas lost so much that they were never able to regain their lost glory form then on. By this point Hindu India was able to reclaim most of its land lost to Muslims and had reached the borders of Attock.



The Sikh confederate grew rapidly in the period of Maratha and Afghan weakness and under its powerful ruler Ranjith Singh and general Hari Singh Nalwa and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia even went past Attock and defeated the Afghans and set up camp in Kabul and other Afghan cities. Under the Khalsa, less than 10% of the population, the Sikh-Hindus were able to rule 90% of the Muslims. This is never mentioned by the Muslims who very proudly say that the a minority of Muslims in India were able to rule the majority. LOL to that.



It can be seen that not only did Hindu-Sikh India reclaim all its land that they had lost to the Muslims they also defeated the Muslims comprehensively and made them their subjects.



3. Power was transferred from the Muslims to the British:



This is another nonsensical lie. It is seen in point#2 above that by the time British entered India, the Marathas and the Sikhs ruled the roost and the Muslims were nowhere in the power equation. Worse, the Muslims were under the rule of the Hindu-Sikhs. The power was transferred to the British from the Hindus-Sikhs. You will never read about this elsewhere because you are considered "communal" or not "secular" if you say things like these. Of course it would also "hurt" the minorities.



4. The British easily conquered India:



The British had a very tough time conquering India, this is spite of India being fragmented/disunited after the victory of Hindu-Sikh forces over Mughals and the Afghans. It is common knowledge that the British were militarily weak during the battle of Plassey but won due to deceit. Face to face against a fully powerful united Maratha army (without the third battle of Panipat debacle) the British would have been slaughtered easily. They would not have been able to use the policy of divide and rule in India and the Indians would have defeated the British barbarians as easily as their ancestors defeated the barbarian Greeks.

[shamu]

[quote name='Lalitaditya' date='18 June 2011 - 08:07 PM' timestamp='1308407382' post='111978']

From my post @ http://indicrace.blogspot.com/2011/06/in...ndian.html



Part of the post is specific to Hindu fight against Islam.



...

2. A south Indian king Samoothiri Raja handed the Dutch a naval defeat. This was unprecedented in that part of Asia where a European naval power was defeated comprehensively.

....[/quote]



Small correction. It was not Samoothiri Raja, but it was Thiruvithamcore (Travancore) Raja, Marthanda Varma, who defeated the Dutch navy.

[Lalitaditya]

[quote name='shamu' date='20 June 2011 - 04:32 AM' timestamp='1308524087' post='111998']

Small correction. It was not Samoothiri Raja, but it was Thiruvithamcore (Travancore) Raja, Marthanda Varma, who defeated the Dutch navy.

[/quote]



Thanks Shamu ji, will correct it.

[Janmejaya]

Greetings to all the readers of Indian history!!! In continuation of this thread, I would like to provide an overview of that lesser known period of Indian history which is much exciting and full of adventure derived from contemporary historical accounts that I am sure would influence all the readers deeply.

I am an avid follower of history both Indian and world history and cannot retrain myself from contributing to his interesting subject, "The Islamic aggression and the fitting reply by the Hindus of India".





While India witnessed the Islamic invasion and gradual occupation of certain regions of the sub continent, various Hindu kingdoms/empires preserved their independence and successfully defeated Islamic attacks of conquest. While we have spoken of the Rajputs in the North western and central parts of India, the Vijayanagar empire to the south of the Vindhyas and the Ahoms on the far east/north east, yet very few people are aware of the powerful eastern empire of Kalinga-Utkal which stretched from the Ganges in the north to the Cauvery in the south and was very successful in resisting the attempts of the various Islamic kingdoms to subjugate this part of India.



The empire of Kalinga-Utkal flourished right from the 10th century AD till the 16th century AD and was ruled by many illustrious emperors who expanded its frontiers at the expense of the Islamic kingdoms surrounding the empire. To the north was the sultanate of Bengal and to the west was the sultanate of Malwa. To the south was the Bahmani kingdom.



The first powerful dynasty for rule over this kingdom was the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Many rulers from this dynasty still have their exploits engraved in temple archives through out Odisha,Andhra Pradesh, Bengal. The Eastern Ganga emperors conquered and ruled over a vast territory comprising of the modern state of Odisha, northern Bengal till the Hooghly right upto Godaveri (entire Andhra, Telengana and parts of Rayalseema). To the west this empire stretched till the Malwa region and comprised almost half of Madhya Pradesh.



The founder of this empire is known to history as Chodagangadeva. He carved out an empire from a kingdom. This empire was established at a time when Bengal and Bihar were conquered by the Islamic armies of Bakhtiyar Khilji, general of Qutibuddin Aibak of the Delhi Sultanate. After conquering Bihar,Bengal and parts of preset day Bangladesh, the armies of Bakhtiyar Khilji turned south towards the Kalinga empire.



That army of Arabs and primarily Turks was cavalry based and the Turks were renowned horsemen from central Asia.It was met on the borders of the Kalingan empire by the emperor's army and defeated completely, forcing Bakhtiyar Khilji to retreat towards Delhi. This was another epochal moment in Indian history since during the 12-13th century, it was mostly the Islamic armies who had rapidly overwhelmed the Hindu armies of the period. The army of Hindu Odishan emperor primarly comprised of Kshtriyas and tribesmen from different corners of the empire and their skill in martial arts is still celebrated today during the annual Paik festival in odisha. Horsemanship and the art of using elephants in warfare was something for which the armies of Kalinga-Utkal were famous throughout India like the contemporary Rajputs of North west India.



The first confrontation between the Delhi Sultanate and the Hindu empire on the eastern sea board of India was only the start of centuries of warfare between these two powers and it only witnessed the inclusion of new powers on the side of the Delhi sultanate.

After the founding of the Sultanate of Bengal, the Odishan empire saw many raids into its territory from the north around Midnapore. Although these raids were frequent but they were an attempt by the Islamic powers to slowly wear out this powerful Hindu empire. Viewers would be reminded of similar tactics being followed by Islamic groups such as Hezbollah, Al Qaida, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Chechens, Uighurs etc. in the form of proxy wars to decrease the strength of a non-Moslem state.



It was during those times, that an emperor named Narasinghdeva took a bold initiative to invade the Bengal Sultanate. The invasion of the Bengal Sultanate lasted for over a year or two and culminated with the annexation of the frontier regions of that kingdom. The annihilation of the Islamic armies in two major engagements left the sultanate in ruins and no Islamic invasion/raid took place for over a decade into the territory of the Odishan emperor.

To commemorate his victory over the Islamic kingdoms, Narasinghdeva built the world famous Sun Temple of Konark with the proud war-horse of Konark standing majestically. This was a testament to the capabilities and the military prowess of the Hindu empire of Kalinga Utkal and the martial legacy of the Odiyas.



However as with all golden times which inevitably come to en end, the Eastern Ganga dynasty slowly declined and their followed a period of chaos during the times of the last emperor Bhanudeva III. The military system had fragmented and lost its efficiency which was compounded with the rise of powerful kingdoms in the south such as the Hindu Vijayanagara empire and the Islamic Bahmani kingdom. In this period of weakness, the Eastern Ganga empire was dealt a tragic blow by the invasion of Firuz Shah Tughlaq in the 14th century, which for a time gave the impression that the empire was doomed and would cease to exist.



Sometimes the greatest of adversities lead to the rise of extra-ordinary personalities who lift the entire race and rescue the empire from decline.Such a man was Kapilendra Dev, the founder of the Surya Dynasty of Kalinga-Utkal in the 15th century. A man possessed with the greatest military genius and a lead par excellence in his days.A man immortalized in the annals of history as the Gajapati emperor and his empire came to be known as the Gajapati empire. The term Gajapati denotes "Lord of Elephants", an attestation to the famous war elephants of this empire and the skills of this army in wielding them in battles.



He was a general in the army of the Ganga emperor and initiated a coup against the weak ruler during whose time, the fortunes of the empire had decreased dangerously. After assuming power, he spent some time to subdue rebellions throughout the empire and annexed the regions that had declared their independence from the empire.He was helped in this effort by his illustrious son Hammira Deva and a great many generals of the army.



After consolidation of the empire, he turned his attention to the external enemies starting with the Bengal Sultan. His victory over the Bengal sultan was so complete and overwhelming that their never was a period during his lifetime of over 40 years during which an invasion from Bengal happened.

He then engaged the sultan of Malwa, the Sharqi rulers and after a period of war emerged victories on this western front of the empire. Not only did he recover the lost parts but annexed a major portion of Malwa and central Madhya Pradesh to his dominion.



Turning south he crushed the Reddy's of Andhra and re-conqured Andhra and Telegana regions. While he sent his son, Hammir Deva to the south of the Cauvery, he engaged the Bahmani sultans and conquered major forts such as Kondavidu, Kondapalli etc.the Krishna-Cauvery doab, the regions of Gulbarga from them.For sometime the capital of the Bahmani kingdom was occupied by his forces and after negotiating a truce was the Bahmani sultan allowed to govern from his fort. The Bahmani kingdom had been reduced to 3/4th its size.



During that period, his brave son Hammir Dev had conqured the entire coromandel coast and reached the farthest point, Thiruvenneli in Tamil lands, almost close to Rameshwaram. Returning from his Bahmani victories, Kapilendra Deva invaded the Vijanagara empire and conqured the the powerful forts of Udayagiri, Chandragiri Vinumakonda, Penukonda right till the banks of the Tungabhadra.



The Vijayanagara armies were defeated repeatedly on battle fields around this region and the final high point of this invasion was the subsequent seige and occupation of their capital Vijayanagara itself. Vijayanagara was occupied for a period of time and after negotiations of cessation of hostilities, the Kalinga army withdrew from Vijayanagara and returned to Odisha.



The era of Kapilendra Dev witnessed massive military and territorial gains for the Kalinga-Utkala empire which at one point stretched right upto Rameshwaram in the far south. This pan Indian empire lasted till the time Kapilendra Deva was alive. His achievements and military might not only discouraged the enemies present on all fronts but carried his name far and across his dominions to Delhi and beyond. The sultanate of bengal, Malwa, jaunpur etc. had bore the weight of his arms and in the south the Islamic Bahmani kingdom paid tribute to him. Exploits him and that of his brave son Hamvira Deva are etched in temples/palm leaf inscriptions across Odisha and Andhra, right from Srikakulam till the Tamil lands.



Post the demise of Kapilendra Deva and due to the fratricidal war of successon, many portions of this empire was lost to old enemies. Though his successor Purushottama Deva, his youngest son revived the territories and again subdued the Bengal, Bahmani sultanates and Vijayanagara empire, yet after his era, the fortunes of the dynasty declined. The period of Kapilendra Deva and his son Purushottama Deva witnessed the empire remained intact for well over eighty years.



During the reign of the last Gajapati emperor, prataparudra Deva, the son and successor of Gajapati Purushottama Deva, the first half of his period witnessed a period of military gains and peace. He advanced his frontier further into Bengal and down south into the Cauvery regions. Turning south west he supervised the seige of Vijayanagar and briefly occupied that city before being called into his northern territory. The period of Prataparudra Deva witnessed incessant acts of treachery and deception orchestrated by his lieutenants and naturally he was surprised when news reached him at Vijayanagara of the invasion of the sultan of Bengal and the fall of the northern forts. He rushed to the frontiers and defeated Mohammed Shah, the sultan of Bengal and chased him to Bengal. But the failure of his subordinates had many tales to tell. Subsequently the empire witnessed natural calamities with massive floods and epidemics which co-incided with the invasion of the powerful Krishnadeva Raya into the southern dominions of the Gajapati. Many forts were lost and the Gajapati army defeated in battles in the Krishna-Godaveri belt. After seven years of war with Krishna Deva Raya, cessation of hostilities took place owing to dangerous overtures from the Adil Shahi sultan against Vijayanagara. The Krishna river remained the boundary between the two Hindu empires.



During those days, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu fled Bengal and arrived in Puri, Odisha to spend his days at the Jagannath temple. The atrocities of the Sultan of Bengal against Hindus was more vigorous than ever a like in the past many great Hindu saints arrived in Puri seeking peace and protection from the powerful Gajapati emperors. The empire of Utkala-Kalinga had provided sanctuary to many Hindu scholars/saints/princes and commanders over the centuries during the Hindu struggle against the Islamic invaders.



With the influence of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the emperor and many of his commanders and army slowly became passive to war and neglected the well being of the frontier regions. Two of the sons of Prataparudra deva were murdered by his minister and the empire fell into disarray and chaos. This perhaps was a reason for him turning into spirituality and neglecting state affairs and the military machinery.



Though Pratarudra Deva outlived many of his contemporary enemies like Krishnadeva Raya and Mohammed Shah, yet given the dispassionate attitude of his character towards the fag end of his life, he did not initiate any actions to undertake military initiatives and detested an aggressive approach that was the need of the hour. This tragic period of Odishan history laid the stage for the disintegration of the empire which finally fell in the year 1568 AD which the fall of Cuttack to the invading Afghans and later to the Mughals led by Raja Mansingh of Amber.



The purpose of the above depiction of the period of Odishan history from the 10th century AD to the 16th century AD aimes at giving the readers an insight into the relatively unknown historical accounts of the eastern part of India in the context of the Hindu wars against Islamic invaders and heights of military achievement our ancestors possessed that ensured that Hinduism not only survived but flourished during the era of such illustrious emperors and leaders of men.

Odisha to this day continues to be a bastion of Hinduism thanks to its mighty ancestors whose brave exploits are respected and remembered by every Odia family.



Sources:

1) The Gajapati empire By R.Subrahmanyam

2) Indian council of Historical Research

3) Military History of Odisha by R.P.Mahapatra

4) History of Odisha by K.C.Panigrahy

5) Madalapanji of the temple of Sri Jagannath Puri

6) The lost empire of Vijayanagara by Robert Sewell

[Husky]

1. indiafacts.co.in/reviewing-stereotypes-of-indias-medieval-political-history-1/



Preaching to the choir: it was never a question that historical Hindoos being HindOOs* didn't beat islamania repeatedly to a pulp. (Which other nation ever did that. HindOOs are the only ones that could defeat islam if they would but Do It.)

* A.o.t. today's new age dhimmis and other subvertibles not to mention pseculars.



The point is today no one wants to smash christoislamaniacs hard for every instance of terror and violence and persecution they inflict on Hindus. That is, the overall sphere today is of enforced dhimmitude; even if the HindOOs extant today are not so themselves, they are drowned by the gangrene/subverted and increased numbers of our enemies.



And the ultimate score has been '2 steps forward 3 steps back', because the war with the aggressive ideologies=its carriers never ended. As long as christoislam exists, as long as it was allowed to live to fight another day, its carriers have slowly multiplied again when the time became favourable, like the orcs they are.

And now, no one in power wants to check them anymore.

The Indian secular army is only allowed to do anything by secular command. And they famously followed the religion of secularism: shot dead Hindoos protesting for the right to maintain the Amarnath Yatra. It's what they will do on subsequent occasions too.



It's not the past that is shameful, but current state: of people that are undeserving of that past, or else are incapacitated by this gangrene (the undeserving).





2. The comments at that link - as at now* - are all good. Love the table of Islam vs Assam and how it ended with heathen Assam All to Nothing for islam.

[* Before "Dr" PMS invades with more of her baiting 'comments'. Oh "PMS". So funny. (No, I have *nothing* against women. And am no more a misogynist than I am a misandrist, or more generally misanthropist. None of the above but most certainly not the first two. Besides, like a true "egalitarian", I accuse individuals whom I dislike of both genders of PMS. Both genders react differently but it annoys all sorts beautifully, I find.** It just happened to be funnier in this case because Dr MS to Dr PMS is such a close fit. Never happened before. So meant to be...

** Like accusing both old and young people whom I don't like and who are being debile of being senile. Again, the effect on both types is hilarious and deserved.)]



A comment by one Chips did make a good point. He said something about how Hindoos should have tracked the vermin down into its origins/hideout and wiped the infestation out there. Same goes for christianism, IMO.

Here this comment. Ok, the name is Krispy. (Crisps -> Chips explains my mis-registering it.)

Krispy K • 15 hours ago



Hindsight is always 20-20, but it is unfortunate that our ancestors were not more far-sighted. Given the perspective we have now, it could be argued that they had the opportunity to spare the world and millions of people centuries of Islamic tyranny by mounting an expeditionary campaign to chase the invaders back to their origins and destroy them there, rather than merely stay put and fight off invasion after invasion.



Ah well.

Yes, should have made sure back then that the fever didn't spread. But have hindsight now, so: why don't Hindus wipe out christoislamania all over the world now? Starting from kicking it out of the Hindu heathen homeland back to ISIS-occupied Syria where it belongs. And let ISIS deal with it. And be ready to nuke them for containment if the outcome of the internal 'strife' that will result there is not the correct one to all-heathen interests.





What is the use of people today adulating the HindOO heroes of the past if they won't at least *emulate* them? It's disrespectful of the kShatriyas who died for Hindoo-dom, if today's "Hindus" won't even aim to maintain their legacy and what they died for, including by employing the means they never shrank from when necessary (and it's been necessary for quite some time, since before the christoviolence that finally converted the NE first broke in the 80s and the islamic expulsion of the native Hindoos of Kashmir).

Sure, christoislam is waging guerilla warfare (well, when christomedia's silencing of jihadis' and crusaders' outright genocide is taken into account). But it is Still war. And still deserves to be answered by the same means or preferably whatever means will put it to an end once and for all. Long past time to call curtains on the genocidal ideology of christoislam. Any continued tolerance - since people know its history all over the globe including first and foremost at home - is owing solely to dhimmitude.





indiafacts.co.in/reviewing-stereotypes-of-indias-medieval-political-history-1/



and the comments too (as at before "Vikram"'s mere compliment which didn't add to the material).