An intellectual Kshatriya - II

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An intellectual Kshatriya - II

V SUNDARAM

 

Like a saint, sage, and seer Sita Ram Goel (1921-2003) has

written prophetically that the death of Hindu society is no longer

an eventuality which cannot be envisaged. This great society is now

besieged by the same dark and deadly forces which have overwhelmed

and obliterated many ancient societies. Suffering from a loss of its

elan, it has become a house divided within itself. And its

beneficiaries no more seem to be interested in its survival because

they have fallen victims to hostile propaganda. They have developed

towards it an attitude of utter indifference, if not downright

contempt. Let no Hindu worth his salt remain complacent. Hindu

society is in mortal danger as never before. He expressed the view

that Hindu society is the only significant society in the world

today which presents a continuity of cultural existence, cultural

consciousness and functioning since times immemorial.

 

If there is a country which has the longest record of

3unbroken history, history in all its multi-faceted dimensions,

undoubtedly it is Bharath Varsha. Though the Puranic literature

states that this great land has been named after the great Bharatha,

yet the Agamas, which are as authentic as the Vedas and which enable

us to understand the true meaning and real import of the Vedas,

define the term 'Bharath' as 'the land of the people, who take

delight in basking under the direct rays of the primal source of

light' verily, Bharath Varsha has been the land of true and

undistorted wisdom, the wisdom that has its all-pervading,

penetrating and deepening roots in all the branches of material and

spiritual sciences. Bharath Varsha's hoary past reaches back at

least to 25,000 BC to 30,000 BC.

 

Many societies known to history?East and West, North and

South?have suffered a sudden shock and undergone a traumatic

transformation on account of invasion and victory of latter-day

ideologies like Christianity, Islam, Communism etc. The pre-

Christian, pre-Islamic and pre-Communist cultural creations and

artifacts of these societies are now to be seen only in libraries

and museums, thanks to the exertions of historians and antiquarian

scholars.

Sita Ram Goel (1921-2003),

a Bhima of Hinduism and Hindu culture. In all his major books

relating to the cultural assault of Islam and Christianity on Hindu

India, Sita Ram Goel consistently warned that Hindu culture could

meet the same frightful fate if there were no Hindu society to

sustain it. This is the point which is not always remembered even by

those who take pride in Hindu culture.

No doubt many Hindus cherish the great spiritual traditions

of Hinduism and its scriptures like the Gita and the Upanishads in

which that tradition is enshrined. But they do not cherish with an

equal enthusiasm the glory of Hindu society which has honoured and

preserved these traditions and scriptures down the ages.

 

Likewise there are many Hindus who proclaim with great pride

and enthusiasm that Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism can never die. This

is true in a sense. There will always be individuals in non-Hindu

societies who will recover the mystique of Sanatana Dharma through

their efforts at self-discovery. Sita Ram Goel lamented in this

context: 'But Sanatana Dharma will surely suffer an eclipse and no

more inform mankind at large with its message, if there is no Hindu

society to sustain it'.

 

Again, there are many Hindus who are legitimately proud of

Hindu art, architecture, sculpture, music, painting, dance, drama,

literature, linguistics, lexicography, and so on. But they seldom

take into account the fact that this great wealth of artistic,

literary and scientific heritage, will die if Hindu society which

created it is no more there to preserve, protect and perpetuate it.

 

Sita Ram Goel was saddened by the fact that no organised and

coordinated efforts have been made to present the ancient history of

India against the background of authentic and trustworthy references

and records made available by our Vedas, the Agamas, ancient Indian

literature in Sanskrit and several other languages, Tamil Sangam

Literature, Silpa Sastras and other related treatises. No scientific

methodology has so far been evolved by Indian historians to analyse,

interpret and present ancient Indian history in the light of our

Vedic heritage going back to the dawn of history. Even today, the

students of Indian history have to remain content with the texts of

history by Western authors and foreign scholars.

 

Sita Ram Goel felt that after our independence in 1947, the

Congress party with its declared faith in pseudo-secularism has

given a wrong twist to Indian history. To quote his own words:

 

'It would be relevant to recall the history of Hindu society

in order to put the record straight. For, there is very little in

that record which invites indifference or contempt, and a good deal

which deserves honour and homage. A word about misunderstandings

first. At one time the dominant school of Western historians and

their Indian disciples, for whom Hindu history commenced with

Alexander's invasion, presented this history as a series of

successful foreign invasions to which Hindu India invariably

succumbed. They even invented an Aryan invasion of India in the

second millennium BC to round up their cherished image of this

country as some sort of a free for all into which any adventurer

could descend and dwell at will. The Aligarh school of historians

have come out with the thesis that Hindu society being basically an

oppressive and exploitative society since its very inception, the

invaders did not have to mount much of an effort in order to break

whatever resistance it could muster at any time. The minority of

oppressors, we are told, retired into fortified towns and citadels,

and the majority of oppressed masses came out in support of the

invaders who were hailed as liberators. To crown it all, the Marxist

historians, in their turn, have welcomed this Aligarh approach with

open arms. Their materialist interpretation of history stands

vindicated. They have extended the Aligarh thesis to mean that the

invaders were not only liberators on the social and political plane

but also great incentives to forces of production. These foreign

invasions, we are informed, were thus so many steps out of economic

stagnation and towards material and social progress'.

 

No purpose will be served by our crossing swords with the

pseudo-stalwarts inspired by Mecca and Moscow. It has been seen

again and again that whatever be the facts, their conclusions remain

the same. Their conclusions remain the same because their motives

are the same. The motives are to malign and misrepresent Hindu

history in order to denigrate and destroy Hindu society and culture.

Now many Indians too have joined the game.

 

Till almost 1400 AD, Hindu culture was a revered culture

throughout the civilissed world. Its seers and sages, its mystics

and monks, its scholars and scientists, its missionaries and

merchants took its message to the farthest corners of world-East

Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia; Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia, Chaldea and

Iran; Burma, China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia; Indochina, Indonesia,

Malaysia and Thailand; Pacific Islands, West Indies, Mexico, Peru

and Columbia; Asia Minor, Central Asia, Greece and Rome. The history

of more than hundred cultures and nations provides solid evidence of

this hoary heritage in their religions and philosophies, languages

and literatures, sciences and technologies, manners and mores.

 

But the wheel of time turns. This triumphal course of Hindu

history suffered a severe setback only with the advent of the Muslim

invaders in the middle of the 7th Century AD. The Hindus were now

faced with an adversary who was not only qualitatively superior in

the art of warfare but also armed with an ideology which was

altogether alien and uncompromisingly inimical to the basic premises

of the Hindu weltanschaung. The war which the Hindus had to wage

against this new adversary was ceaseless and long-drawn-out. But

Hindu resistance did not cease for a day. The Rajputs, the

Vijayanagar Empire, the Marathas, the Bundelas, the Jats and the

Sikhs rose in fierce revolt, one after another, till the fabric of

Muslim rule was destroyed and dispersed by the middle of the 18th

Century. And the number of converts which Islam-considering its

political power and intentions could win during its long spell of

seven centuries was rather small.

 

This victory of the Hindus over the Islamic hordes could not

be consolidated due to the intervention of the British invader in

the 18th Century who wielded not only an unprecedented superiority

in the art of warfare but also a much subtler weapon of diplomacy.

The Hindus were enslaved once again. The British also brought with

them, in the form of Christianity, an ideology which too was

altogether alien and intensely inimical to the basic tenets of the

Hindu way of life. The struggle against the British invader was also

not as prolonged as against the Muslim marauders. It is a matter of

great pride for the Hindus that their struggle for freedom inspired

similar struggles in many countries of Asia and Africa, and that the

dawn of Indian independence in 1947 really heralded an era of

independence for many other enslaved nations.

 

Sita Ram Goel has come to the conclusion that the Muslim and

British invasions of India, though defeated and dispersed, have yet

managed to crystallise certain residues, psychological and

intellectual, which a battered Hindu society is finding very

difficult to digest even today. According to him these residues are

now in active collusion and alliance with powerful international

forces of Islam and Christianity, and are being aided and abetted on

a scale by the Indian minorities which an impoverished Hindu Society

cannot match. Though theses international forces are at logger-heads

among themselves, yet these residues have managed to forge a united

front which is holding Hindu society under siege. The danger is as

much from within as from without.

 

According to Sita Ram Goel, the Muslim invasion of India

crystallised into one residue which we shall call as Islamism. The

British invasion, on the other hand, resulted in two residues which

we can name as Christianism and Macaulayism. After independence,

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress have given us the residue

of pseudo-secularism. The main slogan of pseudo-secularism

is : 'Love the minorities at any cost and hate the Hindus at all

costs'.

 

(to be continued...)

(The writer is a retired IAS officer)

e-mail the writer at vsundaram

http://newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06mar/1003ss1.htm