Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Part 3 - Perception of History and its effect on sustainability and resurgence of Indic civilization in Bhaarat

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One thing about Bhaaratiya civilization is that it tends to remember its defeats more vividly than its victories. There is something fundamentally faulty about the way we remember and cherish our history. This is particularly true about history from invasion of Mehmud Gaznavi in 1020's to fall of Sikh empire in 1849. I am mostly dealing with medieval Indian history with some references towards ancient India. Proud perception of history by Indians is the key for resurgence of Bhaaratiya civilization and Indic memes in India without major communal clashes in Indian subcontinent which might arise out of interaction of Indic and Abrahmic civilization in Indian sibcontinent.

1. Bhaaratiya civilization forgot about Mauryas, until British people discovered them and the extent of their powers. By forgot, I mean we did not care to comprehend the extent of their powers. Guptas were more vividly remembered and Vikramaditya found himself mentioned in countless folk-lores. Same is not true about Chandragupta maurya.

2. The battles of Talikota, Panipat (3rd), Tarain, Haldi-Ghati, Plassey and Buxar, Devgiri, Somnath and similar others are somehow remembered more vividly than battles of Raichur (Krishnadevraya Vs Adilshah), Palkhed(Bajirao Vs nizam ul mulk), Attock Campaign( 2nd Afghan-Maratha war, Marathas conquering Attock and Khyber), Battle of Rajasthan (Bappa Rawal defeating Arabs), battle of Bahraich (rajputs defeating Gaznis)

3. Bhaaratiya people tend to remember their defeats more and think about what went wrong. Muslims, OTOH, remember the good parts and conveniently ignore the part where they suffered nasty defeats. This bolsters their egos and reinstates their faith about the good times when allah was on their side. This is one of the most important factors of Islamic memes which should be inculcated by Indic memes in order to ensure their resurgence.

4. One of the reasons that Bhaaratiya people remember defeats more than Muslims is that Bhaaratiya people, when defeated had to loose everything owing to slaughter than ensued after the defeat. Muslims were never destroyed and slaughtered by Bhaaratiya victors. 

5. This confidence which is instilled in minds due to the one god-one prophet-one book system which is always right and infallible is and was very outlandish in comparison to anything that has evolved in India.

6. Battle of Rajasthan was the successful response against Arab invasion in all fields, right from battle field to social reconversions. The team-work of Bappa Rawal and deval Rishi ensured that the converted masses were reconverted back to the Bhaaratiya faiths and the converts remained socially acceptable. This trend did not continue thereafter against central asian muslim invaders. The reasons are unknown to me. 

7. This was partly a success because Rajputs were promoted from Hunnic Mlenchha status to the status of Kshatriya very recently, when Arabs invaded. Although this was a very gradual process, perhaps the orthodoxy of Bhaaratiya religions had not completely crept in Rajput society by then. The Hunnic instincts had not died out completely. This led to their successful countering of Arabs in military and social fields. The biggest victory in Battle of Rajasthan was that the reconverts found back their original place in Bhaaratiya society without any taboo and/or demotion and/or stigma attached.

8. Since then, Bhaarat and Bhaaratiya civilization has been standing on the cross-roads for ever. We did not move ahead even one bit after the religious revolution of Adi Shankaracharya and Rajput victory in Rajasthan. 

9. And oddly enough, these events are not remembered, cherished and celebrated by Bhaaratiya society and are taken for granted.

10. Bhaarat will continue to stand on the cross-roads indecisively, until and unless it starts celebrating and cherishing its victories over outsiders. Like Islam has the distinction between Muslims and Infidels, we Bhaaratiyas too have our brands of distinctions. It is Bhaaratiya and non-Bhaaratiya. The Non-Indic civilizational memes are looked down upon by followers of orthodox Indic memes with particular disgust and referred to as impure. 

12. Greeks, Kushans, Scythians, Huns, Persians experienced such dominating pride from Astika Bhaaratiya memes after their military defeat. Islam has not experienced that kind of pride, repulsion and sense of superiority from Bhaaratiya memes so far. Whatever repulsion Abrahmics in general and Islam in particular manages to arouse from Bhaaratiya memes is one which arises not out of thorough superiority complex of a victor, but out of the equal-equal attitude of adversaries to the best and inferiority complex of oppressed class to the worst.

13. There is difference between Islam as a religion, a faith and Islam as Arabic civilization. The problem in Indian subcontinent arises. The problem is not Islam. The problem is the Arabic civilizational influence that was forced along with Islam in medieval times. Even after playing Rudra-Veena and reading Geeta, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's Islam is not endangered. This is perfect example of Indianized muslim.

13. Bhaaratiya people have to feel comfortable, proud and completely righteous about their ways while dealing with Muslims. This in turn is possible when we make Bhaaratiya people to cherish their victories over their opponents more than Muslims cherish their victories over Bhaaratiya people in medieval India.

14. Until this happens, Bhaarat and Bhaaratiya civilization will continue to stand without a clue on cross-roads, as it has been standing since past 1000 years. 

2 comments:

Karmasura said...

Are you sure the Hunnic invaders were elevated to Rajputs?

Is there any similarity between the Hephthaelites (white Huns) that invaded India and Rajputs in any way?
Would like to know more on that..

काय चालूये.. said...

@Karmasura,

This is the established theory regarding the origin of Rajputs. The Scythians and the White Huns after their Indianization and passage of couple centuries came to be known as Rajputs.

They became Hindus within two generations. Mihirakula was staunch devotee of Shiva/Rudra. However, the social elevation took at least 100 years. This was facilitated by the fact that the generation of classical Kshatriya people under Gupta Dynasty had died out or decreased considerable following intense warfare with Huns and amongst themselves.

This new wave of Kshatriya people replaced the fallen line and served the purpose for Bhaarat.