According to M.S. Golwalkar of RSS, as written in his book ‘Bunch of Thoughts,’ “The reason for the ultimate collapse of Hindu resistance was that internal dissensions and treachery had enfeebled their ranks and the rest of the country had failed to give them succour from time to time to carry on the battle for the defence of motherland.”

Today being the birthday of the Hindu warrior-King Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, it seems the right time to reminisce the History of Hindu India. I mean the history of Hindu Kings and emperors who ruled India from different parts of the country since the time of the earliest and famous march of Alexander the Great to invade India in 326 BC. At that time, and for 326 or so years thereafter, there was no Christianity or Islam in the world. 

According to some historians, Alexander, Sikandar in Persian, was the first to invade India and defeat King Porus of Punjab. Probably it was also the first instance of a Hindu King Raja Ambhi helping the enemy Alexander in the war. So helping the invader against a Hindu King by a Hindu King, beginning with Alexander the Great, in the wars that took place over centuries seems to be the cause for the collapse of different Hindu Kingdoms spread all over the Indian continent from Kandahar to Cambodia where monuments of Hindu Gods and temples could be seen even today.

According to M.S. Golwalkar of RSS, as written in his book ‘Bunch of Thoughts,’ “The reason for the ultimate collapse of Hindu resistance was that internal dissensions and treachery had enfeebled their ranks and the rest of the country had failed to give them succour from time to time to carry on the battle for the defence of motherland.”

Are we witnessing a similar situation in the country? A warrior like Shivaji should be our inspiration to support those who are ready to “carry on the battle for the defence of the motherland.”

Once India with Hindu Kings became vulnerable because of traitors and saboteurs, Muslim invasion continued unabated finally getting consolidated under Mughals. The Muslim invasion of India, history says, began when Muhammad-bin-Qasim, an Arab, invaded Sindh in 672 AD. However, it took nearly 600 years thereafter before several Islamic States were established in India beginning with the much written about capture of Delhi by Mohammed Ghori of Ghazni (Afghanistan) in 1206, again because of treachery by a Hindu King. Ghori laid the foundation of Muslim dynasties, including Mughal dynasty, in India that lasted for several centuries till East-India Company of the British dislodged them in 1857.

It was Mughal dynasty that ruled India for most part from Babur to Aurangzeb and the effete Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar — from 16th century to mid 19th century.

The question is what were the Hindu Kings doing during these centuries of foreign rule. Either they joined the services of Muslim rulers, Emperors or Sultans, accepting High Offices and Zamindari or met their fate.

In the South there was the Hindu Vijayanagar Empire which Babur wisely avoided, focussing on North India. However, even this empire collapsed before the alliance of Deccan Sultanates — Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar — in the Battle of Talikota on 26th January 1565. Alas, the last great Hindu Kingdom of South India simply disappeared from the Indian map.

Exactly 62 years after the disappearance of the last Hindu empire of India — Vijayanagar Empire that lasted more than two centuries from 1336 to 1565 and thereafter till 1646 at a different location as a remnant — was born in South India, the new hope for another Hindu empire. Shivaji Bhosale was born on 19.2.1630, though the British author Dennis Kincaid gives the date as 16.4.1627. Name of the Empire: Maratha Empire.

[To be continued] 

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