3. RESISTANCE INDIA

Unlike the complete Islamization of Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Turkey, North Africa, Islamization of India was never complete. After more than one millennium of Muslim occupation from 715 A.D to 1757 A.D, more than 80 percent of the population of undivided India remained Hindu at that time(1757 A.D.).This was NOT due to any Muslim charity or benevolence, since Islam does not profess tolerance and no Muslim ruler dared to go against Islamic teachings.

The Muslim tyranny in India was as blood-thirsty and insidious as it was in all parts of the globe that were unfortunate to be trampled by the Jihadis. The Hindus suffered initial setbacks due to the innocuous but ill-founded belief amongst them, as amongst all other non-Muslims, that the Muslims too were normal rulers, who would after a victory, settle down to govern the defeated population. But the Muslims were, and still are, compulsively paranoid about jihad and ready to kill any non-believer without remorse who can be outmatched only by someone who are themselves doubly compulsively paranoid for killing. And only when such a mental match is evolved or created, Islam can be reined in. 

The Crusaders were one example of such a mentality; as were the Franks under Charles Martel and the Mongols, who were the last such example. Hence only the Crusaders, the Franks and the Mongols could prevail over the Muslims and that too only as long as they nurtured and effectively used against the Muslims a mentality of being more compulsively hater of Muslims than the Muslim themselves are against all non-Muslims.

So as in all parts of the world Hindus of India suffered and are suffering at the hands of Muslims, motivated by their murderous creed. Hindus suffered mass murders, rape, and destruction of their places of worship. But the Hindus were not, and still are not compulsive killers of the Muslims as were the Crusaders, the Franks or the Mongols. Then why they survived one thousand years? The only difference with other victims of Islamic nightmare is that the Hindus grew wiser relatively faster than most of the other unfortunate victims of the Islamic Jihad and started fighting back the Muslims bravely and intelligently even though belatedly and intermittently.

Unlike the Zoroastrian, Buddhist and animists, the Hindus never surrendered to the Muslim tyrants. They waged a relentless and armed struggle against the Muslims.  It was this valiant Hindu resistance that resisted the savagery of the Muslims and opposed conversion of Hindus to Islam at the pain of death. When fortune favored them, the Hindus returned in almost equal measure and struck fear in Muslim hearts for Hindu warriors like Krishna Deva Raya, Shivaji and Sikhs (a Hindu sect) like Guru Gobind Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur, Rajputs, Jats and Marathas and many others. The reason why the Hindus survived thousand years of savage Muslim tyranny was that they learnt that the art of survival in face of a Muslim attack and could give back almost as much as they got from the Muslims except barbarianism.

The difference between Muslim savagery and Hindu resistance was that the Hindus slaughtered the Muslims on the battlefield, but did not go to the extent of slaughtering Muslim civilians and giving them the choice of Hinduism or death. Hindus did not molest Muslim women en masse, neither did they destroy en mass all Mosques, nor did they build temples over them. Never did the Hindus, after a victory, impose a penal tax like the jaziya on all Muslims and reduce the Muslims to such a state of servitude that for Muslims dying would be more preferable than living under a tyrannous Hindu rule. There is no record of the defeated Muslims saving their skins by jumping in to the common fire (as the Hindus did in Jauhar) to avoid converting to Hinduism.

The Hindu resistance was not just fierce, but it kept increasing in ferocity till end with the Marathas. The Hindus overtook the Muslims in their ferocity. It was this lesson which the Hindus learnt from the Muslims and applied against the Muslims that led to the Hindu victories against Muslims. It was the Marathas who presaged President Bush when he said “We will hunt down our enemies.” The Marathas literally hunted down the Muslims. The only other case of a Muslim defeat in face of such tactics was in Ethiopia and Southern Sudan (Nubia) where the African Christians of Nubia used guerilla tactics against the Muslims to hunt them down and to finally defeat them.

It is also true that in 1757 A.D. half of India was under Muslim rule and persecution of Hindus were still continuing. British occupation of India stopped Muslim persecution of Hindus but it also stopped Hindu resistance to Muslim aggression. Who knows without British intervention what would have happened? Sikhs, Maratha, Jats and the likes could have driven out Muslims rulers from India. India would have evolved into a confederation of several Hindu countries today. India could have been a orthodox Hindu confederate embroiled in caste and language problems. Alternately whole of north India could have become Muslim and India could have meant South India up to Gujarat and Orissa. That did not happen. 200 years of British rule prevented total Islamization of North India but allowed slow increase of Muslim population  to about 25% at the time of Independence leading to partition of India. Today Bengal is largely Muslim and whole of Sindh, West Punjab, Baloochistan, Pakhtunistan and Afghanistan have been totally islamized and these are Muslim countries and birthplace of world terrorism. If India as a whole were converted, the situation would have been much worse. World terrorism would have gone out of control.  That is why the resistance put up by Hindus in medieval time is so important. It is also important to support India in its war against Islamization because India alone can stop  Islamic Jihad and save the world.

How Hindus resisted jihadi plan is not taught in Indian schools but this is a past,Indians should be proud about. A brief history of resistance is placed here.

Baloochistan and Sindh

Muslims invaded India only four years after they invaded Persia.

Very few know that while the Muslims invaded Persia in 634, and invaded Sindh in India in 638, just a gap of four years. But while Persia succumbed in seventeen years by 651, Muslims took eighty years to overrun Sindh (a part of a Muslim country called Pakistan that was carved out of Hindu India in 1947). The first attack was from sea. It was decisively repulsed. Several more attempts were made through sea route. But the Arab Muslims were repeatedly defeated by the Rajas of Makara (Makran) and Sindh. But as usual, the Muslims used foul tactics against the Indians (Hindus) for securing a victory, as they did all over the world.

Muslims attacked Baloochistan over land from Persia. Even today there are surviving evidences of the long forgotten Hindu past of Baluchistan. It may sound unbelievable, but till today there survive a few ancient Hindu temples in Baluchistan. The Hinglaj Mata Mandir is one such temple. This temple is popularly known as the Nani Mata Jo Mandir (Nani Mata's Mandir). Located about four hours drive from Karachi towards the Iranian border. This temple still attracts devotees even from the Baluch Muslim converts. It is a small temple set in the midst of a gorge; evidently it must have been moved here to prevent its idol from being destroyed by the marauding Muslims. 

The pilgrimage to the Hinglaj temple starts with a visit to the Baba Chandrakup, a mud filled volcano that has been revered since Hindu times and is today revered by many Muslim converts too. The Nani Mandir is located on the other side of the coastal highway that connects Karachi with Gwadar port. The Muslim converts from the Zikri clan who pay obeisance to this temple call it the Koh-i-Murad and term their pilgrimage as a "Hajj". The gorge in which the temple is located overlooks the Hingol River and is part of the Hingol National Park.

The Balochs had put up a stiff resistance against the invading Arab Muslim for nearly eighty years, from the first attack on Baluchistan at Makara in 638, up to 715 when the Muslims overran Baluchistan and invaded Sindh to occupy its capital Deval (from Devalaya also known as Debal whose ruins still exist 65 miles away from modern Karachi). In this eighty years of resistance, the Baluchs have many successes to their credit. In fact the string of defeats that the Arabs had to suffer at Baluch hands, is recollected by Arabs chroniclers in the derisive accounts of the reasons for their defeats at the hands of the Hindu Baluchs by saying that the Hindus of Makaran (Makran) practice Voodoo and Black Magic and so bring Jinns and Shaitan to help them in war. Hence the Arabs cannot defeat them, the way the Arabs could easily defeat the Persians and the Byzantines. Balochs were ultimately defeated as they were fighting mighty Arabs by themselves without any support or help from Indian states. They could hold the Indian frontiers all by themselves for eighty years is a credible performance.

But the Hindus were tenacious fighters. It may be recollected how the Greeks under Alexander overcame the Persian Achemanian empire in a few years, after which they attacked India, but the Hindus fought the Greeks so fiercely and harassed the Greek army so much that in spite of the Greeks securing a costly victory in the battle along the river Hydaspes (Vitasta, today’s Jhelum), the Greek troops mutinied and refused to advance further into India.

Then Muslims attacked Sindh through land route. Even here they were not successful in the beginning. Fort of Debal was standing before them as a mark of defiance. Muslims ultimately captured the Fort of Deval (Debal near modern Karachi) by deceit, by kidnapping the three children of the chief guardsman of the fort of Debal, beheading one and threatening to behead the other two. With this blackmail, they forced him to leave one of the secret trap doors open, after they had feigned retreat. Due to this betrayal, the Muslims could finally sink their ugly claws into India.

The Hindus never forgot this treachery and eventually learnt from it. In this treacherous attack, the Muslims killed all able bodied men and enslaved women and children for slave trade. They sent two young daughters of King Dahir to the Caliph as booty with a message that they were royal virgins. The two princesses tore apart their hymen with their own hands and told the caliph that their modesty had already been violated by Qasim, Arab general who captured Debal. The Caliph believed the princes and executed Qasim. He later executed the princes also.

After the Muslim occupied Sindh, they did not rest quiet, they attacked Punjab, but were repulsed, then they they attacked Gujarat and they were defeated by the Chalukyas (Solankis) of Anahilwada at the “Battle of Mount Arbuda (Abu)”. Finally Arabs attacked Rajputana, but they were decisively repulsed by joint forces of Emperor Nagabhata I of the Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty, the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and many small Hindu kingdoms in the 8th century. The south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty sent his general Pulakesi who defeated the Arabs in Gujarat. Thereafter Arabs stopped further aggression and remained within the boundaries of Sindh. In fact the successive losses so weakened Arabs, that they could not muster enough courage to further trouble Indian states.  But Baloochistan and Sindh remained under Muslim occupation. Hindus and Buddhists there suffered untold miseries but they just clung to their faith and occasionally resisted. Unfortunately other Indian states did not come forward to help. Only in eighteen century Maharaja Ranjit Singh freed them from clutches of Muslim persecution. But then it was too late.

Afghanistan

Arab Muslims could not make any headway into India from their occupation of Sindh in 715, up to 980. It was only in the year 980 that the Muslims could invade India once again. But they had to use another gateway. Instead of attacking Rajasthan, Punjab and Gujarat from Sindh, they attacked the Shahiya kingdom in Upaganastan (Afghanistan – literally the land of allied tribes). Invaders were not Arabs but later Muslims of converted Turko–Persian origin.

The Muslim Arabs captured the city of Herat in 652. Muslim forces continued to move east till 667 and occupied large tract of Afghanistan including Kabul. But Afghans could not accept the persecution and Islamaization and Kabul revolted in 683 and completely routed the invading army. Afghanistan continued to resist Arab aggression and defy Arab forces for two hundred years, keeping Afghanistan free. In 870 Afghanistan was once again brought under Arab control by the Saffarids. In 870, Yaqub bin Laith as-Saffar, a local ruler from the Saffarid dynasty of Zaranj, Afghanistan, conquered most of present-day Afghanistan in the name of Islam. He adopted convert or die policy. But as he withdrew, the people he conquered rebelled against Islamic overlords and reverted to prior forms of worship. Slowly, Hindu shahi repulsed the Arabs and once again Afghanistan was a free country.

This last and final Muslim lunge towards Afghanistan was not led by Arab Muslims, but they were the Persian, Turkish and Mongol converts to Islam. The first Turko-Persian Muslim chieftain to attack the Hindu domains was named Sabuktagin. He ruled from Ghazni and had forced his way up to the domains of Jayapala Shahiya (Hindu-shahis) the Hindu Raja of Kubha (later renamed as Kabul by the city’s Muslims occupiers). Sabuktagin learnt Hindu ways of war. He found Hindu kings are vainglorious and can be easily provoked to accept challenge. Hindus also fight from dawn to dusk and rests in the night.

The crafty Muslim chieftain decided to use this practice of the Hindus against them. He challenged Jayapala Shahiya to open warfare and decided the place and date of the war. True to his word the Hindu king reached the appointed place one day before the day of the war. This was in the year 980 A.D. The Muslims too had assembled at the appointed place and the two adversaries exchanged ambassadors and decided that the hostilities would commence at sunrise the next day. After the Hindus retired for the night, the Muslims started preparing for a night assault. While the Hindu army was in deep slumber, except for a few scouts, the Muslim army attacked by taking cover of the dark and stormy night. The storm entirely camouflaged the advance of the Muslims as they stealthily crept towards the Hindu camp, after crossing the few hillocks that separated the two camps.

The Muslims had muffled the sounds of their advance by covering the hooves of their horses with felt and cloth. Dressed in dark clothes the Muslims almost reached the Hindu camps at 2 A.M. at night. When they were spotted, the Hindu scouts raised a hue and cry to awaken their sleeping troops. But it was too late. Before any significant number of the Hindus could arise to don their armor and be ready to fight the Muslims, a large number of them were done to death while they were half awake and struggling to prepare themselves for war.

The entire Hindu army was caught unawares, but they still put up a stiff fight against their adversaries. The battle continued till past dawn, but the Hindu army had been overpowered, tricked as it had been to give the advantage of surprise to the Muslims. By late morning the remnants of the Hindu army retreated back to their capital Kubha (Kabul), with the Muslims in hot pursuit. The Muslims soon occupied Kabul and continued to push the Hindus eastwards.

After the defeat at Kubha, the disgraced Hindu king Raja Jayapala Shahiya egged on by his son Anandpala Shahiya decided to shift his capital to Udabandapura (modern day Und in North West Frontier Province – Paktoonisthan the province of the Pakhta tribe mentioned in the Mahabharata period in ancient Hindu). But Jayapala could not bear the humiliation of defeat and decided to immolate himself rather than live with the shame of having been defeated by the Muslims with treachery. The crown passed to his son Anandpala Shahiya.

Thus ended the freedom of Afghanistan in the year 980 A.D., one and half centuries after the Arabs occupied Sindh in 715 A.D.and three and half centuries after their first attacks on India that had started in 638 A.D. Even after conquering Afghanistan in 980, it was in 1192 that the Muslims could capture Delhi and that they could reach South India only in 1326. So more than three and half centuries of constant and treacherous Muslim attacks were needed to enable the Muslims to make a dent into India and it took another three and half centuries of Muslim aggression for Jihadis to tentatively overrun India. This stands in sharp contract to the swift capture and conversion of Persia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain all of which fell to the truculent Muslim armies in less than eighty years from 635 A.D. up to 711 A.D. Even then Muslims did not have a peaceful domain. Hindus continuously regrouped and challenged. No area in India was continuously under Muslim occupation. There were intermittent Hindu rule except possibly Delhi and Bengal. .

Punjab

The Muslims seized on their victory over the Hindu army and overran the capital Kubha (which was renamed Kabul by the aggressors). They destroyed the Hindu temples there and force converted the Hindu population that stayed behind, to Islam. After the defeat of Jayapala Shahiya, his son Anandpala Shahiya, moved his capital from Kubha (present day Kabul) to Udbhandapura (present day Und where Jayapala committed Jauhar) and finally to Luvkushpura (present day Lahore).

He gathered all allies he could from Northern India and opposed the invading Muslims, now led by Sabuktagin’s son Mahmud of Ghazni. The armies met on the banks of the Ravi near Lahore. In the initial skirmishes, the Muslims were worsted by the Hindus who led the attacks using armor-clad elephants, and were determined to liberate their motherland from the Muslims. In the initial phase, the Muslims were pushed up to the foothills of the Paariyatra Parvat (Hindu Kush Mountains).

After these defeats, the Muslim realized that the armor-clad Elephants would be their nemesis and put paid any further invasions of India. As the Muslims came from Afghanistan and beyond, they had no access to elephants.they decided to use subterfuge which was instinctive for the Muslims, as it was practiced from the days of the Treaty of Hudaibiya.

The Muslims so  sent an envoy to Anandpala, saying that they are suing for peace; their conditions were that they should be allowed safe passage out of the country. As a gesture of goodwill they wanted to come over to the Hindu camp and have a common meal with the Hindus, to seal the peace treaty. Against the advice of his allies, the innocuous and unsuspecting Anandpala agreed to meet the treacherous Muslim marauders.

The innocent Hindus were playing the role of hosts and the Muslims came for the luncheon arranged at the banks of the Ravi River where the Hindu army had encamped. The Muslims moved about towards the stables of the Hindu camp and expressed surprise at how the Hindus fed their mighty elephants. While intermingling,Hindus indulged their “guests” with every query they asked. After all the Muslims were their guests and the Hindus had a quaint belief that “A guest is like God” (Athithi Debo Bhava), but little did these unsuspecting Hindus realize that these Muslims guests were Satan incarnate! While the unsuspecting Hindus showed them around the elephant stables, the Muslims secretly fed the elephants poppy seeds (opium) mixed with fruits.

The poppy seeds being raw did not have immediate effect and everything seemed normal. The dastardly deed being done, the Muslim contingent left the Hindu camp and returned to their own camps. The Hindus self-satisfied that the war was over and the peace had now been sealed with a common luncheon began preparations to dismantle their camp.

To their utter amazement, in the next few hours, the Muslim cavalry surrounded the Hindu camp in a pincer move and began a fierce attack with shrieks of Allahuakbar. The confused Hindus belatedly, realized that they had been double-crossed by the Muslims. But manfully they fastened the howdas (seats for the riders of the elephants like saddles for horsemen) to their elephants and charged at the besieging Muslims in a disorderly manner. The Hindus were in for a shock when their elephants refused to obey their mahouts (elephant riders) orders and started running amok and away from the battled. The opium fed deceptively by the Muslims had begun to have its effect. With Anandpala also on one of the elephants which had started running helter-skelter, the confusion grew in the remaining Hindu troops. 

The Muslims cunningly spread the word that Anandpala was retreating, as he knew that a new and strengthened Muslim army had joined the existing Muslims forces. The rumor gained credence, as the Hindus saw that Anandpala’s elephant had gone a considerable distance away from the battle. There isolated from his main army, Anandpala was pursued by the Muslims who had kept him under watch. They surrounded him, cut down the leather strips that held his howdah on the elephant, and when the howdah fell on the ground, they decapitated the unfortunate Anandpala, beheaded him, stuck his head on a spike and paraded it before the Hindu army which was already in confusion.

This grisly sight further demoralized the remaining Hindu troops who had initially lost heart when they saw their leader in “retreat”. Now with his head on a spike, a sight which they had never seen in battles before, totally unnerved them, and the Hindu retreat turned into a rout, with many of the Hindus massacred on the battlefield. The rest was easy, for the Muslims to tear down the remaining Hindu troops and turn what was on the way to becoming a Hindu victory into a Muslim one, with the use of subterfuge and betrayal of the innate faith which the Hindus had even in an unscrupulous enemy like the treacherous Muslims.

After death of Anandpala, rein fell in the hands of his seventeen year old son Tirlochanpala. The first move Tirlochanpala did was to shift the capital from Lahore to Kangra in today’s Himachal Pradesh. Kangra was in a relatively fortified position, from where he tried to reorganize the defense of his vastly reduced domains. The Shahiya empire which stretched from Herat to Hardwar, was now pushed to one fifth its size and its western border which was once at Herat during the reign of Jayapala Shahiya was now pushed about a thousand miles east at Kalka in the Shivalik Hills which were the foothills of the Himalayas. The Shahiya domains had now shrunk and did not occupy a position to block the further advance of the Muslims into the Gangetc plains - the Indian heartland. But Tirlochanpala followed the valiant example of his father and grandfather and allied himself with the kings of Kashyapmeru (Kashmir) and Tibet, to eject the Muslims from Punjab and Upaganasthan (Afghanistan).

Sabuktagin’s son Mahmud Ghazni, wanted to nip this effort in the bud. He again made use of the patented Muslim mechanism of subterfuge. He sent a group of his soldiers dressed up as Hindu mendicants to meet Tirlochanpala. These mendicants went to Kangra and sent in a message that they come from Kubha (Kabul) and bring a message to their king whose ancestors originally ruled Kabul. With this trick, they gained entry into Tirlochanpala’s headquarters at the fortress of Kangra.

Once in his presence, the mendicants surrounded the unsuspecting young prince and sliced his neck and made off with his severed head, leaving a note beside his headless body that Islam will finally overcome anyone who decided to block the path of Allah’s soldiers. A few days later a Muslim army arrived at the Kangra valley, stormed the fort of Kangra, and sacked it to srip it off the opulent riches that it held from the once vast Shahiya empire. This happened in the year 1020 A.D. The downfall of the Shahiya empire was so complete within forty years spanning a struggle over three generations that a few centuries later people even doubted if the Shahiyas (Hindu-Shahis) ever existed. Thus the memory of a dynasty that had held guard at the North West frontier of India since the days of the Kushanas in the 3rd century A.D. disappeared into the sands of time. The only reminder today are the ruins of the fortress of Kangra around which the gold and silver coins artfully minted by the Shahiyas have been found.

The surviving remnants of the once formidable Shahiya army became leaderless and demoralized. They migrated deep into the Himalayas and settled down as goat-herds known today as Gaddis. These Gaddis follow this profession to this day and they still inhabit the Himalayas coming down to the Shivalik foothills and the plains of Punjab in the winter to graze their cattle. Thus with Tirlochapala’s death, the last scion of the Hindu dynasty that ruled Afghanistan and Punjab passed away.

The next Hindu (Sikh) king of Punjab and Afghanistan was to be Maharaja Ranjit Singh who ascended the throne after a gap of eight hundred years in the 18th century. The interregnum was to be the dark interlude of Muslim tyranny, during which a majority of the Hindus of Afghanistan, Paktoonistan and West Punjab were either killed or converted at the pain of death.

The defeat of the Shahiyas opened the Indian heartland to these Muslim invaders. Mahmud of Ghazni, repeatedly attacked India. His raids for plundering and destroying Hindu shrines at Purushapura (Peshawar), Luvkushpura (Lahore), Mulasthana (Multan), Somnath, Palitana, Staneshwara (Thanesar), Mathura, Kannauj, Khajuraho regularly every year are still recollected with dread. His aim initially was limited to collecting a large booty every time as also to take many Hindu captives who were sold into slavery in the bazaars of Baghdad and other Muslim cities. His raid on the famous Hindu shrine of Somnath located at Prabhash Patan in Gujarat is seared in Hindu memory till today.

Gangetic plain

Mahumd Ghazni’s son, Masud Ghazni, invaded India following his father’s footsteps with a large army. The difference now was that he did not intend limiting himself to looting as his father had done, but planned a permanent occupation of the entire country.

With this aim in mind, he penetrated deep in to the Ganges valley and established his camp at Baharaich in today’s eastern Uttar Pradesh. From there he sent word to the surrounding Hindu kings to surrender and embrace Islam. As was their practice, before the beginning of hostilities, the Hindu kings also sent a messenger to Masud that this land being theirs, his troops should peacefully vacate it. But Masud sent a reply that all land belonged to Allah and he could settle wherever he pleased. And that it was his holy duty to convert all to Islam.

Consequently, Masud's huge army was besieged by the even greater Hindu army and no side gave the other any quarter. The Hindus, for once as an exception had learnt their lesson about Muslim treachery, after being victimized for four hundred years from 638 onwards. At the battle of Baharaich, gradually the Hindus began to decimate the Muslim army and as the hostilities progressed, Masud saw the unsuccessful end of his expedition. This bitter and bloody war was fought in the month of June 1033. In this ferocious and bloodied war, no side took any prisoners and it ended only with the slaughter of the entire invading Muslim army along with many martyrs from the defending Hindu army.

The battle of Baharaich ended on 14th June 1033. At the gory end, the entire invading army along with their commander lay dead. Not one enemy soldier was allowed to return. There still exists today near Baharaich the grave of the commander of the invader - Prince Ghazi Mian Masud. There he is hailed today by the local Muslims as a Ghazi and a Peer (a Muslim who is raised sainthood by being a killer of non-Muslims). And every year till this day an Urs (Muslim religious assemblage) is held in his memory. What is forgotten is the valiance of the Hindu soldiers who lost their lives in this major victory against the first Jihadi invasion in to the Indian heartland. Ironically and foolishly, some local Hindus too visit the invader’s grave to ask for personal boons.

After this decisive and ruthless Hindu victory, peace prevailed in the country for a century and a half; till the next (and now, unfortunately a successful) wave of Muslim invasions started under the leadership of Mohammed Ghori.

This interlude of one hundred and fifty years from 1033 up to 1187 A.D. had made the Hindus forget the treacherous nature of the Muslims. The Ghaznivid kingdom of West Punjab (established by Mahmud Ghazni on the former territory of the Shahiya kingdom), had made peace with its Hindu neighbors and the Hindus were under a delusion that the Muslims were like any other invader who would settle down in India and be absorbed into Hindu society, as had happened earlier with the Greeks, Huns, Kushans, etc.

The policy of the Ghaznivid occupiers of West Punjab to issue coins in Sanskrit and use the Sanskrit version of Muslim names as Mahamada for Muhammed fuelled this wrong impression about the true nature of the Muslims in the minds of the simplistic Hindus.

The next Muslim onslaught came in the year 1187 A.D., when the Muslim chieftain of a place named Ghor in Afghanistan, overthrew the Ghaznavid ruler in Ghazni. These Gauris (pronounced by the Muslims as Ghauri, Ghori and rendered in English as Ghurid) were originally Hindu cowherds and were subjects of the Shahiyas, who had been converted by force to Islam, by the Ghaznavids, who overthrew the Shahiya power in Afghanistan in 980 A.D.

Now in the 1187,after a lapse of 200 years, these ex-Hindus who had been forced to embrace Islam had become cruel and merciless like any other Muslims and not a trace of their Hindu ancestry was evident in their mindset, except for the name Gauri. Hindu cowherds, the Gauris had now become the new ruthless tormentors of their former compatriots - the Hindus.

After overcoming the Ghaznivid governor of Punjab, Mohammed Ghori found his way into India proper blocked by three powerful Hindu kingdoms – the Solankis (Chalukyas) of Anahilwada in Gujarat, the Chahmanas (Chouhans) of Delhi, Ajmer and Sambhar; and the Rathods (Gahadwals) of Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh).

Mohammed allied himself with the Muslim governor of Sindh and in 1187, unleashed the full fury of his aggression on Gujarat. But to his misfortune, the Hindu Solankis (Chalukyas) of Anahilwada, defeated him utterly at the battle on the plains below Mount Arbuda (Abu) and forced him to retreat across the Thar Desert.

Mohammed having tasted defeat at Hindu hands once, decided to make use of subterfuge. He studied Hindu warfare, as had been done by Sabuktgin two hundred years before him. Thus, fully prepared to invade India, he advanced through West Punjab and laid siege to the fortress of Bhatinda in East Punjab that lay on the borders of Prithvitraja’s domains. Soon, he had to face the wrath of the Rajputs, and at Tarain (also known as Taraori) in today’s Haryana, the two armies clashed furiously.

In face of the repeated onslaughts of the Rajput cavalry, the Muslims broke ranks and fled leaving their king Mohammed Ghori a prisoner in Prithviraja’s hands. Their defeat by the Solankis of Anahilwada had given the Muslims a foretaste of Hindu valour. But in that retreat they had to leave behind many of the best steeds in their cavalry which fell in to the hands of the pursuing Solanki army. In Tarain, retreating Muslim army left large number of cows tied together which forced Rajput army to stop persuit.

But Mohammed Ghori was captured and brought as a prisoner in chains before Prithviraja. Fearing for life, Mohammed Ghori begged for mercy and promised that he would never lift his eyes toward India. This act melted the foolish and proud Prithviraja and he ordered that Mohammed’s chains be removed. In his feigned gratitude Mohamed told Prithviraja that he was like a “brother”. This statement floored Prithviraja even further. Going against the advice of his friend Chand Vardai, his generals Hammira, and the brave warrior twins Aalaa and Uddhal, he ordered Mohammed to be released and as a token of his generosity, he also gifted his captive with five hundred horses and twenty elephants with soldiers to manage and honorably released him.

Once freed, the vengeful Mohammed who was seething with rage and thirsting for revenge made his way back to Ghori and carefully planned his next attack on Prithviraj! On reaching Ghor, Mohammed reneged on his sham promise to Prithviraj and promptly murdered the Rajput escorts and envoys that Privithraja had sent to accompany Mohammed to Ghor. Displaying utter contempt for noble behavior, Ghori sent their severed heads as a token of his “goodwill” to the astonished Prithviraj. Mohammed Ghori also immediately started preparing for another assault on India. Going by the experiences of his two defeats at the hands of the Solankis and Chauhans, the wily but twice beaten Mohammed decided to go by subterfuge, the patented mentality of the Muslims that has given them victory over more powerful, but less scheming and treacherous adversaries.

Mohammed’s spies told him that whenever the Hindus battled each other, the armies fought from sunrise up to sunset. There was no warfare before Sunrise and after sunset (in the hours of darkness).In the following year, Mohammed broke his deceptive promise to Prithviraja and attacked India once again. The two armies again gathered at the same battlefield of Tarain (Taraori) near the ancient town of Thanesar (Sthaneshwara).

 In 1191, the Rajput army under Prithviraj had camped near a river so as to do their morning ablutions before the war could be joined on the next morning, as was decided by the two commanders. But violating convention, the Muslim army attacked at 3 A.M. before dawn, as had two centuries earlier the Muslim army led by Sabuktgin in the year 980 (a fact which the Hindus had foolishly forgotten).

When the Muslims unexpectedly broke into the Hindu camp, Prithviraj’s soldiers had begun their morning ablutions and some were still asleep, and so were totally unprepared for the assault. But they did their best to group their forces and resist the Muslims. The Muslims had the advantage of surprise which they had gained by deceit.

The uneven battle continued till noon, by when the Muslims had slaughtered many of the Rajputs. But the Rajputs did not yield and in turn, slaughtered many of their treacherous Muslim enemy too and gradually gained the upper hand. By midday, it looked like the second battle of Tarain would also go the way the first had gone. Mohammed saw victory slipping from his hands once again.

So he resorted to another patented Muslim subterfuge of single combat – called Mard-o-Mard in Farsi (Persian). This was a technique which Muslims had used quite cunningly against the Zoroastrian Persians, some six centuries earlier when the barbaric Muslim hordes first burst out of Arabia and attacked Iran.

In order to humiliate Prithviraj, Mohammed sent word that he would call off the battle, if Prithviraja came and fought his champion Qutub-ud-din Aibak in single combat. To save the lives of his soldiers and to conclude the war quickly Prithviraja agreed. The rule in single combat was that when one combatant is either pinned down or killed, the army to which he belongs concedes defeat retreats. No other combatant is allowed to participate in this combat, hence the name - single combat.

But with the insidious Muslims, this rule did not hold. So at the battle of Tarain, when the two met and Prithviraja’s sword felt heavy on Qutub who risked losing his life, Qutub resorted to a feint and by whirling below his saddle he cut off one of the feet of Prithviraja’s horse, before Prithviraj could realize what he was up to. As the horse lost balance, Prithviraja tripped and fell off his wounded horse.

This was a foul move, and it would have been fair, had after this, Qutub, also dismounted and fought Prithviraja on foot. Instead at a pre-arranged signal from Qutub, a band of truculent Muslim soldiers, who had till then stood aside in the grab of horse-tenders, jumped on Prithviraja, pinned him down, pressed on his face a dose of hashish (that grew abundantly in the poppy farms of Afghanistan as they do till this day). They bound the drugged Prithviraja in chains and galloped away with him as a prisoner into their ranks, before the Rajputs could realize and react to this unexpected act of treachery.

The Muslims immediately carried away the captive and drugged Prithviraj and hoisted him on one of the elephants that Prithviraj had gifted to Mohammed Ghori when he had released Ghori. The Muslim spread a rumor in the Rajput camp that Prithviraj was dead and that they were holding aloft his dead body to show the Rajputs the futility of fighting further.

When the Rajputs saw that they their Maharaj (King) was evidently dead with his corpse in the hands of the enemy, they lost nerve and through enraged, fell back against Pithoragarh, their fortified capital at Mehrauli near Delhi. The Muslims retreated with the captured Prithviraj to Afghanistan.

When Prithviraj was presented in chains before Mohammed Ghori, he reminded Mohammed how Ghori was himself presented before Prithviraja in chains and how Prithviraja had honorably released him. On hearing this Mohammed and his courtiers laughed derisively at Prithviraja and told him that he did not understand Islam and the Muslim psyche! When Prithviraja glared back at Mohammed and his courtiers, Mohammed ordered him to lower his eyes as he was now a captive. When Prithviraja told him that a Rajput’s eyes are lowered only after death, Mohammed in a fit of rage ordered that Prithviraja’s eyes be pierced with red hot irons. He kept the blinded Pritiviraja in solitary confinement and had him occasionally hauled to his court for being made fun of as the “Lion of Delhi”.

During this period of humiliating captivity, Prithviraja was joined by his friend and biographer Chandra Vardai (Chand Bardai) who joined his master in prison, after offering himself as a prisoner to Mohammed. It was in prison, that Chandra Vardai told Prithviraja of a plan to avenge his betrayal and humiliation. Before an annual event of Buskhazi (a kind of wild sport in which the Muslims indulged) was to be organized, Chandra Vardai told Mohammed, that Prithviraja would like to show his skill in archery, but he would accept orders only from a king who had defeated him. And as Mohammed was the only king who had done that, Mohammed Ghori himself would have to order Prithviraj to shoot!

Mohammed’s ego being rubbed the right way, he readily agreed. On the said day Prithviraja was brought to the assemblage. And when Mohammed gave the order for Prithviraja to shoot, Chandra Vardai in the following poetic stanza advised Prithviraja to take revenge. “Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul asta pramaan, Ete pai Sultan hai, Ab mat chuko Chouhan." (Ten measures ahead of you and twenty four feet away, is seated the Sultan, do not miss him now, Chouhan). On hearing these words Prithviraja whirled in the direction of Mohammed and shot three arrows one after the other and wounded Mohammed fatally. Thus Prithviraja had his justice, although due to his folly in pardoning the fiend Mohammed, he lost his kingdom and India lost its sovereignty to the Muslims.

Delhi attempted liberation

Khusro Khan – A Hindu convert briefly overthrows the Khilji dynasty in 1320

In the early 14th century (1312) Gujarat was overrun by the Muslims, who had a century earlier occupied Delhi. As was customary, the Muslims slaughtered countless inhabitants of Gujarat. They also carried off many beautiful women and handsome young men as captives, to be used as sex slaves. One such handsome child was eleven year old Khusro Khan. Even at that tender age, he had chiseled features and was fair complexioned.This was not his original name when he was carried off as a prisoner. He belonged to the Makwana sub-caste of North Gujarat.

As was the custom, all captives were forcibly converted to Islam and brought up as slaves. After nearly fifteen years in captivity Khusro Khan forgot what his original name was. He only faintly recollected that he had a different childhood which he shared with the other captives from Gujarat. His stunning features and fair complexion evoked the perverted lust of his captor Sultan Allaudin Khilji’s perverted son, Qutbuddin Mubarak Khalji. He like his more notorious father Alauddin Khalji, were in love with their young male slaves. Qutbuddin Mubarak had a particular fondness for his slave Khusro Khan and as a teenager; Khusro was sexually abused by Qutbuddin Mubarak for eight years.

In 1320, Qutbuddin murdered his ageing father Allaudin and crowned himself emperor. By then Khushro had acquired a position of influence over Qutbuddin. Khusro had also used this influence to gather other captives like him and had armed them to make up Qutbuddin’s bodyguard. Qutbuddin had put his trust in his partner in perverted sex, Khusro and put him in charge of guarding his royal quarters. Qutbuddin Mubarak excluded all his father’s men from important duties in the palace and the army. Taking advantage of his position and the general resentment for Qutbuddin, Khusro murdered Qutbuddin Mubarak Khilji, and crowned himself king and assumed the title Khusro Khan. And what was a shock to the whole of India, especially to the Muslims occupying Delhi was that Khusro declared himself to be a Hindu again!! When he ascended the throne, Khusro Khan was only nineteen years of age. The Muslim nobility was shell-shocked, but with the strong contingent of Gujarati converts around Khusro Khan, they were momentarily stunned into inaction. However, they began plotting the overthrow of Khusro Khan – who in their eyes was a Murtad who had abjured Islam.

Eventually, after a year, a Muslim General Ghazi Malik (who later took on the title Giyasuddin Tughlak) murdered Khusro and re-established the rule of Muslims in Delhi. After a brief interlude of Hindu rule, Ghazi Malik founded the Tughluq dynasty. But this event proved that if the Hindus had the determination grit and shrewdness, they could overturn Muslim rule in India.

Hemu Vikramaditya

                                                                                                                                                      

On 24th January 1556 A.D. the Mughal ruler Humayun slipped while climbing down the steps of his library and fell to his death. The heir to the Mughal throne, 13 year old Akbar was then campaigning in Punjab with his chief minister Bairam Khan. On February 14, 1556, in a garden at Kalanaur, Akbar was enthroned as emperor. The other rivals for the throne of Delhi were the three Afgan princes of Sher Shah. However the main threat to Akbar's future came not from the Afgan princes but from a Hindu named Hemu. Hemu was the Hindu chief minister of Afgan prince Adil Shah and he led a surprise attack on Delhi in October 1556.

The Mughal forces under its governor Tardi Beg Khan panicked and went into a sudden ignominious flight. This was Hemu's twenty second consecutive victory in successive battles. After the capture of Delhi, Hemu set up himself as an independent ruler under the Hindu title of 'Raja Vikramaditya'. At this juncture against the advice of most nobles. Akbar and Bairam Khan took a courageous decision, to press forward against Hemu's undoubtedly superior forces. On November 5, 1556 the Mughul forces met the Hemu’s army at Panipat.

In this second battle of Panipat, the Mughals were saved by a lucky accident after a hard fight which looked more than likely to go against them. Hemu who was leading the battle from atop an elephant, veered too close to the enemy ranks, and an archer from the Mughal army used this opportunity to attack him. An arrow hit Hemu in the eye and although it did not kill him it had pierced the cerebral cavity enough to make him unconscious.

In any battle of this period the death of the leader meant an end of the fight, and the sight of Hemu slumped in the howdah of his famous elephant Hawai was enough to make his army turn tail. Akbar’s General, Shah Quli Khan captured the Hawai elephant with its prize occupant, and took it directly to Akbar.

Hemu was brought unconscious before Akbar and Bairam. Bairam advised Akbar to perform the holy duty of slaying the infidel and earn the Islamic holy title of 'Ghazi'. Among much self-congratulation Akbar then severed the head of unconscious Hemu with his saber. Some historians claim that Akbar did not kill Hemu himself, but just touched the infidel's head with his sword and his associates finished the gory 'holy' work. However the latter version seems inconsistent with the events that followed. After the battle Hemu's head was sent to Kabul as a sign of victory to the ladies of Humayun's harem, and Hemu's torso was sent to Delhi for exposure on a gibbet.

Iskandar Khan chased the Hemu's fleeing army and captured 1500 elephants and a large contingent. There was a bloody slaughter of those who were captured and in keeping with the custom of his ancestors Tamerlane and Chengiz Khan, Akbar had a victory pillar built with the severed heads of his fallen Hindu enemies.

Hemu's wife escaped from Delhi with the treasure and although Pir Mohammad Khan's troops chased her caravan they could not lay their hands on her or the treasure. Hemu's aged father was captured and on refusing to accept Islam, was executed. This is the 'glorious' history of Akbar's victory at the battle of Panipat.

Bengal liberated

Raja Ganesha was a Hindu ruler of Bengal, who overthrew the Ilyas dynasty rule from Bengal. The Indo-Persian historians of the medieval period considered him as an infidel usurper. The dynasty founded by him ruled over Bengal from 1415−1435. His name is mentioned in the coins of his son, sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah as Kans Rao or Kans Shah.

Raja Ganesha was a landlord of Bhaturia and he was described as a member of a landholder family of 400 years' standing. Later, he became an officer of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty rulers in Pandua. Ghiyas-ud-Din Azam Shah was succeeded by his son Saifuddin Hamza Shah (reigned 1410–12) and the latter by Shihabuddin Bayazid Shah (reigned 1413–14). Ganesha killed Shihabuddin and seized the throne.

Raja Ganesha tried to re-establish Hindu rule in Bengal. Thereupon, a Muslim Chishti saint Shaikh Nur Qutb-ul-Alam wrote a letter to the Jaunpur Sultan, Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, with an appeal to invade Bengal. Ibrahim Shah attacked Bengal with a large army. Ganesha agreed to convert his 12 year old son Yadu and hand over power to him under the title Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. Sultan Ibrahim returned to Jaunpur. Ganesha initially ruled on behalf of his son then ascended the throne for the second time. He also reconverted his son back to Hinduism.

During his brief rule Raja Ganesha established rule of law in Bengal. He promoted Hindu ascendency but did not harm Muslim aristrocracy.

But this time, Yadu was a young man and was deeply influenced by Islamic traditions. Yadu assassinated King Ganesha by his Muslim followers and then reconverted and re-occupied the throne after his death.

Whole India did not give in to Muslims

At no time Muslim could conquer whole of India. Certain areas defended themselves against all odds till very end. Muslim could not penetrate far East as well as Himalayas. South India resisted till very end. By this time Hindus have also learnt Muslims way of double talk and barbarity. Hindus started turning the tactics of their Muslim tormentors on the tormentors themselves. The first Hindu king to do that was the King of Orissa - Narasimhadeva.

Orissa

After the easy victories over North India from Punjab, through Bengal, the Muslims turned to attack Orissa. Here the Muslims met their match. The people of Orissa were hardy fighters. (In ancient and medieval times, Orissa was also called Kalinga or Utkal – from Uttam Kala which means ‘Excellent Art’ that reflects the artistic tradition of sculpture of that region) The bravehearts of Orissa had given a hard time to Samrat Ashoka Mauya, when in the 3rd century B.C. Kumara, the king of Kalinga, gave a tough battle to the Mauryan invader, before Orissa could be annexed to the Maurya Empire.

Now in the 13th century, when Tugan Khan attacked Orissa, the then ruling king of Orissa, Narsimhadeva, decided to use subterfuge against the Muslims. He sent word to the invaders that he wanted to surrender without a fight, as had Lakshmansena, the ruler of neighboring Bengal. Tugan had easily conquered Bengal a few years before attacking Orissa. He found Bengal to be easy meat as the king of Bengal instead of fighting, fled from the advancing Muslim armies and Begal fell without a fight. Having tasted blood in Bengal, Tugan thought that the conquest of Orissa would also be a cakewalk.

Tugan boasted that he had put the fear of death in the heart of the Hindus and could overrun the entire country in a single campaign. But Narasimhadeva had other ideas. Tugan accepted Narasimhadeva’s surrender proposal and asked for the surrender of the major city of Puri that was an important Hindu Pilgrim center (Narasimhadeva had his capital elsewhere at Jajanagara). Tugan’s other conditions included handing over all weapons to the Muslim army, embracing of Islam by the entire population in the central square in front of the Jagannath Temple or agreeing to pay Jazia and to convert the Jagnnath temple at Puri into a Mosque as an acknowledgement of submission.

To the delight of the Muslims, all these terms were accepted and the Muslims advanced into the city, blissfully unaware that the shrewd Hindu king had laid a trap for them. On the orders of Narasimhadeva, the bustling city had been completely evacuated of its pilgrims, the aged and children; and professional soldiers from all over the kingdom had occupied every nook and cranny of the city, hidden away inside the closely built houses across the narrow winding lanes.

Once the Muslim army was inside the city, it had to disperse itself into the maze of narrow lanes and bylanes with which they were not familiar and where they had to dismount from their horses and advance single file. Unaware of the danger lurking they advanced cautiously and slowly towards the central square where the surrender ceremony was to take place.When the Muslim army was so dispersed, at a prearranged signal from one of lookouts from the temple spires, the temple bells started ringing, and this was the signal for the Hindus to pounce on the Muslims. The pitched battle lasted one whole day and went into the night pierced by the cries of wounded and dying Muslim and Hindu soldiers. While the Hindus took many losses, the entire Muslim army was caught as in a mousetrap, and annihilated. Very few Muslims could escape this trap.

This bold and unorthodox idea succeeded, and it caught the Muslims totally off-guard as it had never been used till then, by any Hindu king, as it went against the Hindu rules of warfare based on fair-play and fighting a noble war. But precisely because of it being totally unexpected, the Muslims had to suffer a bloody nose and the Hindus emerged victorious. Consequently Orissa was to remain a Hindu bastion for many centuries and this accounts for the very low percentage of Muslims in Orrisa even today, unlike Bengal, where the eastern part (known today as Bangladesh) has been totally Islamized, and the Western half of Bengal is undergoing the process of Islamization .

The victorious King of Orissa, Narasimhadeva erected a victory pillar designed as a war chariot. This temple was dedicated to Surya the Sun god, at a location near the temple town of Puri. He named this place Konark which means “Essence of the Corners” While the structure commemorates the victory in the battle against the Muslims, the name Konark commemorates the science of astronomy of which the King was an avid student.

South India

In 1326 A.D. Muhammad bin Tughluq defeated and killed the king of Kampili. Among those taken prisoner were sons of Sangama, Hukka (Harihara I) and Bukka (Bukka Raya), both treasury officers of Kampili who were forced to convert to Islam. They learned Muslim ways of warfare and earned trust of the Nawab. Some years later the brothers were sent back to govern Kampili. In 1336 A.D., the brothers laid the foundation of an independent kingdom, denying any subordination to the Tughluqs and became Hindu again.

The Vijayanagara Empire (also called Karnata Empire), referred to as the Kingdom of Bisnegar by the Portuguese, was an empire based in the Deccan Plateau region. The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the southern powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. It lasted until 1646 A.D. although its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 A.D. by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara, whose ruins surround present day Hampi, now a World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India.

Vijaynagar, was the first Hindu kingdom which gave up the Hindu practice of not molesting non-combatants. Thus they started paying the Muslims with the same coin. Whenever the armies of Vijaynagar overran any Bahamani town or village they torched it. With this they put the fear of death into Muslim minds and soon, the Adilshahi and Nizamshahi sultans sued for a treaty with Vijaynagar that would proscribe the killing of civilians by either side.

From then on this treaty was adhered to by both the Hindus and Muslims, till Vijaynagar was finally defeated at the battle of Talikotai. After the final defeat of the Hindus at Talikotai, the Muslims repudiated this treaty, as their founder Muhammed had repudiated the treaty of Hudaibiya, and so after the battle of Talikotai the truculent Muslims indulged in a gory slaughter of all the Hindu inhabitants of Vijaynagar. They murdered everyone they could lay their hands on. Not a single person was allowed to live in that beleaguered city. The city itself was reduced to rubble, after six months of ceaseless pillage and wanton destruction.
But the Vijayanagara Empire effectively stopped Muslim persecution in South India for three centuries.

Assam

The Muslims had made many attempts from the time of Mohammed Bin Tughlak to swallow Assam. But the Ahom kings of Assam stoutly and shrewdly defeated each Muslim incursion in to Assam. Finally the Mughals during the reign of Aurangzeb attacked Assam with a huge force. The shrewd Assamese king laid a trap for the Muslim army at a place named Sariaghat on the Bramhaputra river.

The Battle of Saraighat was fought in 1671 between the Mughals (led by the renegade Rajput Hindu traitor Kachwaha king Raja Ramsingh I), and the Ahoms (led by Lachit Borphukan, the Ahom governor of Guwahati) on the Brahmaputra river at Saraighat near Guwahati. Although considered to be the weaker force, the Ahom army defeated the Mughal by using a combination of guerrilla tactics, psychological warfare and military intelligence.

In a surprise night attack, Lachit Barphukan dramatically captured the Mughal post in north Guwahati and, later, their fort in south Guwahati. The present day Kamrup Deputy Commissioner's bungalow is now situated on this site. The greatest threat to Lachit's army were the many Mughal cannons. In another secret mission executed the night before battle the cannons were disabled by Bagh Hazarika, a subordinate of Lachit's, During the night, Hazarika poured water into the cannons' barrels, soaking their gunpowder. With the Mughal cannons disabled, the Ahoms bombarded the Guwahati fort with their cannons. After a heavy cannonade and then a determined charge, the Mughals were defeated and the fort captured. After this the Mughals abandoned Guwahati.

Now Lachit Barphukan anticipated a larger retaliatory attack by the Mughals and he started arranging defenses, obstacles and garhs (earthen walls) around Guwahati, relying upon the hillocks around Guwahati and the Brahmaputra River as natural barriers against an invading army. Lachit was thorough and ruthless in preparing for the defense. He even beheaded his own uncle for neglecting his duty. When Lachit asked his uncle why the work was not progressing as expected, his uncle complained of boredom. Lachit in a fit of fury cut off his uncle's head and said "my uncle is not greater than my country."

The Mughals struck back in March 1679. The Mughal commander-in-chief of the advancing Mughal army had at his disposal 30,000 infantry, 15,000 archers, 18,000 Turkish cavalry, 5,000 gunners, more than 1000 cannons and a large flotilla of boats. Portuguese and other European sailors were employed to man the fleet. These forces moved up the Brahmaputra from Dhaka to Guwahati. Lachit's spies kept him informed of the progress of the Muslim advance. The Mughals laid siege to Guwahati that lasted for more than a year.

Lachit fought from within the barriers knowing that his small cavalry would not stand against the Mughal cavalry on open ground. His guerrilla attacks against the Mughal caused them to suffer many casualties. Although the Mughals made many efforts, including one attempt to bribe Lachit with power position and money, as they had done successfully with some Rajputs, but with Lachit the Mughals failed to tempt him to betray his country. Every attempt to bribe him was replied with scorn. In spite of repeated desperate attempts they failed to defeat Lachit and capture Guwahati.

But now the Ahom king, however, became impatient and ordered Lachit to attack the Mughals on open ground. Lachit reluctantly obeyed this command, and attacked the Mughal army in Allaboi. After some initial success, in which the Ahoms captured the local Mughal Commander, Mir Nawab, the Ahoms drew the full force of Mughal cavalry.

The Ahom army was decimated by the Mughal cavalry on the open plain losing some 10,000 troops. Lachit had taken the precaution of digging a line of defense at the rear of his advancing columns, to which they could fall back to if forced to do so. In doing so, he managed to save the remainder of his forces and retreat into his prepared defenses.

The Mughal could not penetrate these defenses and ultimately launched a massive naval assault on the river at Saraighat. They had large boats, some carrying as many as sixteen cannons. The Ahom soldiers were demoralised after their losses at Allaboi and their commander-in-chief, Lachit Borphukan, was seriously ill. At the sight of the massive Mughal fleet, they began to lose their will to fight, and some units commenced retreat.

Lachit had been observing this development from his deathbed. Despite having a high fever, he had himself carried to a boat and, along with seven other boats, advanced headlong against the Mughal fleet. His bold advance inspired his retreating army to rally behind him. A desperate battle ensued on the Brahmaputra. The Ahoms in their small boats outmaneuvered the larger, more sluggish Mughal boats, and the river became littered with clashing boats and drowning soldiers.

The Mughals were decisively defeated and they were finally forced to retreat from Guwahati, and also from other Ahom territory, up to Manas River. Thus ended the Battle of Saraighat. It was victory for Lachit Barphukan, the legendary hero and people of Assam.

Lachit Borphukan, like Lord Nelson, died in the lap of victory; and the battle of Saraighat was Assam's Trafalgar.

Nepal and Tibet

Less is known of the Muslim attack on Nepal and Tibet. Flushed with his easy successes in India, Mohammad bin Tughlak, the mad Muslim ruler of Delhi decided to conquer the Hindu kingdom of Nepal and the Buddhist domains of Tibet and convert the Gurkhas and Tibetians to Islam. Till then the Gurkhas had remained out of the path of the Muslim aggression.

But in 1402, Mohammed bin Tughlak launched the first Muslim attack into the Himalayas. The Nepalese King knew the fate of the Hindu rajas of the plains and refused to meet the Muslim army at the border of his kingdom in the Nepalese Terai (plains).

The shrewd Nepalese king withdrew his army into the snowy vastness of the Himalayas and joined force with the king of Tibet who had sent down his reinforcements, as Tughlak had made clear his aim was to overrun Tibet after the conquest of Nepal.

The Muslim army marched through deserted Nepalese villages and burnt out fields towards the snowy upper reaches of the Himalayas where not a blade of grass grew. The huge Muslim host was now fatigued but marched on, on the orders of Mohammed bin Tughlak, whose aim was to capture Kastha-Madapam (Kathmandu) and Lhasha.

As the Muslim army went deeper into the Himalayas apart from the biting cold and the harsh terrain, they also had to march in small units through different valleys. The Nepalese Tibetean forces lay in wait for the Muslim army at a narrow pass beyond Pokhra. In the snow clad barren valley the battle was joined and the hardened Gurkhas mercilessly cut down the wearied Muslim troops in the harsh snowy and barren terrain. The Muslim army was slaughtered to a man, and only a few stragglers returned to the plains to tell the story of this ignominious defeat.

After this massacre, no Muslim ruler was foolhardy enough to attack Nepal. And so Nepal remained a Hindu kingdom along with Assam and Orissa, all through the seven hundred years of Muslim tyranny over Northern India. It is this ruthless victory that preserved the Hindu character of Nepal.

Had the Muslims overrun Nepal, they would have forcibly converted the Gurkhas to Islam and today we would have seen Muslim Gurkhas wielding their Khukhris (knives) to terrorize the remaining Hindus in Nepal to convert to Islam and indulge in terror attacks against India. The temples of Pashupatinath, Bhaktapur, Patan and Hanuman Dhokha would have been converted into mosques as have been those at Kashi, Ayodhya, Mathura and innumerable other places.

Counter Attacks

Beginning of the Hindu counterattack against Islam does not have any fixed date. In fact counter attack started as soon as Hindus lost the very first battles of the Rajas of Makara (Makran) and Sindh in 638.It continued till  the final elimination of Muslim rule in vast swath of Indiaby  the Marathas, Jats, Rajputs, Gurkhas and Sikhs in the 18th and early 19th centuries. These continuous stream of counter attack went on and on and almost freed India before the East India Company took charge and defeated both Hindus and Muslims.


SIKHS

In one North Indian province, Punjab, the Hindus resisted Islam by removing the deficiencies from their own religion, and then first matching and finally outmatching the ruthlessness of their Muslim tormentors. The Sikhs considered themselves protector of Hindus. Sikh religion can be considered as a product of Hindu religion with characteristics of Islam. In the eyes of the Mughal rulers, the followers of the Gurus were Infidels who tried to undermine Mughal sovereignty. For this the Sikhs were violently repressed. In the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir, Guru Arjan Dev Ji was the first Guru to be martyred (at the hand of the Mughal oppressors). Jehangir sentenced Guruji to be beheaded after being tormented for days. Burning hot sand was poured on his bare body. After being subjected to such inhuman torture, Guruji expressed a desire as his last wish, to have a bath in the Ravi river before being beheaded. Guru Arjan Dev Ji who had suffered brutally at the hands of his Mughal tormentors, went into the river till his head disappeared into the swirling currents of the Ravi - never to return. Thus he became the first Sikh Guru to lay down his life due to Mughal oppression.

It was under the later Gurus that Sikhism came to appear as the militant wing of the Hindu community. The idea of Sikhs being defenders of Hinduism was strengthened during the tenure of the 9th and 10th Gurus, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. During the tenure of these two Gurus the nature of the Sikh religion underwent a fundamental change. And from being a sect with ascetic and pacifist ideals, the Sikhs were transformed into an aggressive military theocracy.

Militarization of the Sikhs due to Mughal Oppression.

The changes brought about by Guru Gobind Singh were so fundamental that they represented a new phase in the history of Sikhism. It is worth recalling the circumstances that led to this change. Understanding this phase of Sikh history is all the more important as it led to the formation of Sikhism as we know it today.

This phase of the Sikh religion was a direct result of Mughal oppression. The Mughal rulers had no love for a sect that originated from among the Hindus but had adapted Islamic ideas like monotheism, rejection of idol worship, military theocracy and de-facto accepted converts from adherents of Islam. This was unbearable to the Mughals who looked upon the Sikhs as wanting to usurp the platform of Islam and stall the process of converting Hindus (in Punjab) to Islam. Sikhism was in the eyes of the Mughals - a Panic Reaction of the Hindus against Islam. The Sikh reform was detrimental to the conversion of the Hindus to Islam; and the militancy of the Sikhs was harmful to the security of the Mughal empire. Hence the oppression of the Sikhs by the Mughals was even more severe than the oppression of the Hindus in general.

During the reign of Aurangzeb the severest wave of oppression was unleashed on Non-Muslims in general and Sikhs in particular.

During the reign of Aurangzeb Guru Tegh Bahadur who was the then Guru of the Sikhs was approached by a group of Hindu Pandits from Kashmir with a plea for protection from Mughal oppression. True to the spirit of his faith the Guru decided to approach the fanatical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb himself for a redress of the grievances. Unfortunately at the Mughal court he received abuses and threats. He was told to accept Islam at the pain of death.  True to his words, the Mughal emperor put members of the Guru's entourage to death, one after the other. But Guru Tegh Bahadur did not lose his composure and calmly demanded a halt to the repressive policies. Wanting to teach him a lesson and to set an example to his followers the emperor ordered that the Guru to be beheaded. Thus after Guru Arjan Dev, Tegh Bahadur was the second Sikh Guru to meet a violent death at the hands of the Mughals. But after his execution some of his followers managed to sneak out the Guru's severed head from Delhi and carried it to Anandpur. At the place where the Gurus severed head was cremated, a Gurudwara was erected to commemorate this sacrifice undertaken in defence of the Dharma. This place is known to us today as the Anandpur Saheb Gurudwara.

When Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred, his son Gobindrai, who later became Guru Gobind Singh, was still a boy. But the events which had overtaken his father influenced him deeply and after succeeding his father as the next Guru, he was determined to carry out the struggle against Mughal oppression. Towards this end he undertook a radical transformation of the Sikh religion. This transformation was too fundamental to be termed as a reform and it virtually amounted to the establishment of a new religious order.

The transformation of Sikhism as the Khalsa Panth was formally launched by Guru Gobind Singh Ji on Baishakhi (New year) day in the year 1699. The new community was termed the Khalsa Panth or the 'Pure Sect' as its followers were required to be far stricter in observing the tenets of their reformed faith. The followers of the Khalsa were required to observe five visible symbols of membership, five Ks. These signs as we know were: 1) Unshorn Hair (Kesha), 2) A curved dagger (Kirpan), 3) A comb (Kangva), 4) A steel bangle (Kada), 5) A pair of shorts (Kachha). All members of the Khalsa were required to suffix their name with the term 'Singh' meaning 'lion'. Guru Gobind Singh's aim in forming the Khalsa Panth was to build up a militarized community which could resist Mughal oppression. An anecdote about his forming of the Khalsa army is worth recalling.

Once the Guru was delivering an inspiring speech before a group of Sikh youths, on the necessity for every youth in the community to be ready to sacrifice everything he had including his life for the cause of his faith. The response of the youths was enthusiastic and many expressed their readiness to get enrolled in the Khalsa Panth. But the Guru' s standards of integrity were very high and he said that he would require the heads of those who wanted to join the Khalsa. The Guru pulled out his sword and beckoned the enthusiastic youths to come forward and lay down their lives there and then.

The youths were dumbfounded and for some moments nobody volunteered to sacrifice his life, while the Guru waited with his unsheathed sword in hand. Finally one of the youths turned up and offered his head to the Guru saying that his head already belonged to the Guru and the Guru may have it if he wanted. The Guru caught hold of the youth and led him inside the sacrificial tent that had been erected for the occasion. After sometime there was a piercing scream form the youth and the Guru emerged from the tent and in his hand was a blood-stained sword. The Guru now demanded another head.

His audience was benumbed at this evident gruesome scene and many devotees fled the place in disgust saying that the Guru had gone mad! But out of the few remaining youths another one offered his head to the Guru. After some time a few select youths had offered their heads to their Guru and has been "sacrificed" by the Guru, while many others had fled carrying with them the memory of a ghastly episode.

But those who fled were later to learn the secret of what happened to those brave youths, five in number, who had offered their heads to the Guru and who were the first Panj Pyaras. Contrary to the impression that he created, after leading every youth into the tent, the Guru embraced each of them and installed them as his select soldiers who were to form the Khalsa army. This army was the bravest that could be had as it was made up of men who had proved that they would lay down their lives to serve their Guru and the Panth in their struggle with the Mughal oppressors.

There is also a lesser known tradition which Guru Ji is said to have shared orally with the Panj Pyaras in the tent after they had offered him their heads. After baptising them as the first 5 members of the the Khalsa "Pure" Panth Guru Ji decided to have the Panj Pyaras observe the 5 kakkars which included wearing a Kada (signifying a bangle) - as a sign of not yet having fulfilled a commitment of overthrowing the Mughal tormentors who then ruled Punjab(and the rest of India). The Kada was meant to instill a compelling sense of commitment in them to defeat their Mughal tormentors. This aspect of the kada signifying womanhood and shame was later not mentioned for obvious reasons and is not reflected in the Sikh legend. It was this act on part of Guru Ji that spurred on his followers to avenge their oppression by the Muslims and finally led to their successes under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1799.

Maharaj Ranjeet Singh Ji was born in 1780 and witnessed these turbulent times in Punjab's history. By 1799, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh had started his attempt to unify the different Sikh Misls, which was to grow into a powerful Sikh Kingdom in the early decades of the 19th century and remained a powerful force till Maharaja Ranjeet Singh's death in 1839.

The Sikh kingdom was also the last of the Indian kingdoms that held out against the British.

On the departure of the Afghans, the Sikhs reasserted themselves in the Punjab and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji who was the leader of the Gujranwala Misl - which was one of the most powerful Misl, formed a kingdom with its capital at Lahore in today's West Punjab in Pakistan. His kingdom stretched beyond the Hindu Kush (Paariyatra Parvat) into Afghanistan. Able generals like Hari Singh Nallua helped in pushing the frontiers of the Sikh kingdom into Afghanistan.

It was a tradition in those days for the eldest son of every family from Punjab to join the army (of the Maharaja) by observing the 5 Kakkars. Brave generals like Hari Singh Nallua took the Sikh armies deep into Afghanistan and they are reputed to have brought back the original Gates of the Somnath Temple which had been desecrated by Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century. The gates had been carried off by Mahmud to Afghanistan and had remained there ever since. Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji retrieved them and brought them back to India.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji's reign marked the consolidation of Indian sovereignty in Punjab after first Muslim invasions eight hundred years before in 1020. The Marathas had broken the continuous Muslim occupation of Punjab by liberating it in 1756 and Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji consolidated Hindu rule in Punjab a few years later.

The kingdom established by Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji successfully resisted the Afghans, and Rohillas and also out-matched the new imperialist power of the British successfully till Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was alive. At his death, the Maharaja had warned about the impending coming of the British.

It was during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji that the Harmindar Saheb Gurudwara at Amritsar which had been burnt down by Ahmed Shah Abdali in 1760 A.D., was repaired and was completely plated with gold and from then onwards it came to be known as the Golden Temple.

Marathas

Now we move to the South where the Marathas were the first who crossed the Muslim invader Malik Kafur's path, when he invaded Central India in 1314 A.D. They were then led by the last scion of the Yadava dynasty - Ramdev Rai Yadava who ruled from Devagiri (today's Daulatabad, near Sambhajinagar aka Aurangbad). In their first clash with the Muslims; the Marathas lost to the invaders and accepted the status of being vassals and mercenaries of their tyrannical Muslim masters. Shivaji's mother, Jijabai was a direct descendant of the erstwhile Yadav royal family of Devagiri. She seems to have nursed deep within her mind the idea of recovering independence from Muslim rule which her Yadav forebears had lost in the year 1318 A.D. Shivaji grew up with these ideas embedded into him. His childhood stories are those of playing games in which he and his friends attacked and captured forts held by the enemy. When Shivaji was seventeen, he decided to transform what were till then simply games to a reality. He and his friends encouraged by Jijabai and his Guru Dadoji Kondeo; decided to take a formal oath to free the country from the shackles of Muslim tyranny. This was done in the year 1645 A.D. in a dark cavern housing a small temple to the Hindu God Shiva (locally called Raireshwar).

Here Shivaji and his select band of teenaged Maratha friends slit their thumbs and poured the blood oozing from it on the Shiva-linga (Phallus representing the Lord Shiva). By this act they declared a blood-feud against Mughal tyranny. This was the beginning of a long and arduous Maratha-Mughal struggle that went on for the next century and a half to culminate in the defeat of the Mughals and their replacement by the Marathas as the dominant power in India when the British came into the scene. The Hindu ruler Shivaji was the first who turned back the tide of the Muslims from India.

The Marathas,whom Shivaji organized, would capture Delhi from the Muslims in 1720. In Shivaji’s life, the source of his inspiration was his mother Jijabai. Shivaji started his military career by capturing the fortress of Torana, and it sent shock waves in the Adilshahi court at Bijapur. Here was a local Hindu chieftain, daring to challenge the might of a Muslim ruler. The retribution was swift and Adil Shah sent his most fearsome general named Afzal Khan to bring back Shivaji dead or alive to Bijapur.

Afzal Khan who was reputed to be more than six feet tall and of a real massive built, set on his mission and in order to lure Shivaji down into the plains, he destroyed the Hindu temples at Tuljapur, Pandharpur and Shikhar Shenganapur. This ploy failed to work and Shivaji stuck to his Hill fastness in the Sahyadris. Shivaji even sent a letter to Afzal Khan praising the legendary strength of Afzal Khan's powerful arms and his reputed fearlessness. Shivaji addressed him as his uncle and said that he was afraid to come down to meet Afzal Khan. Shivaji asked him to come up into the hills to meet him and on condition that Afzal Khan came with not more than few select soldiers. The proud Khan felt that the Dekkhan-Ka-Chuha (Rat of the Deccan as the Muslims scornfully addressed Shivaji) had really chickened out. Before inviting Afzal Khan up to the fort in the densely forested ranges, Shivaji had gone down to the plains in the guise of a fruit vendor with a basket of fruits on his head. This ploy was done so that Shivaji could have a good look at Afzal Khan’s face when the Khan traveled on horseback. No other person could have an excuse to look up to the Khan’s eyes. But a fruit vendor would have to look up to ask if the Khan wanted fruits. This way Shivaji made sure he knew who was the real Khan? He knew that for meeting enemies, the Muslims sent impostors whenever they sensed that they would be betrayed at the meeting. But this way Shivaji ensured that he knew that it was the Khan himself who had come to meet him and not an imposter in his place. This action of Shivaji clearly indicated that he had made plans for slaying Khan when the two met at the Fort. Afzal Khan agreed to go up the hills at Pratapgad Fort to meet his nemesis. When the meeting took place, Shivaji had come in full armour that was hidden beneath his thick satin robes, while Afzal had no such protection. When they came face to face Afzal Khan embraced Shivaji and with his formidable enemy (Afzal Khan was about six feet tall while Shivaji was rather short) in his embrace, Shivaji suddenly slipped his the 'Wagh Nakh' into the Khan’s abdomen. The 'Wagh Nakh' (literally tiger’s claws) are a sharp weapon resembling tiger claws that could be hidden in the grip of one's fist. In addition, he had the Bichhwa – a curved dagger hidden in the pocket of his waistcoat with which he repeatedly stabbed the unprepared Khan. When Khan realized that he had been betrayed he bellowed “Dagaa, Dagaa” “I have been betrayed” and called for his bodyguard Syed Banda to come to his rescue. The fact that the Khan had not attacked Shivaji is lent credence by the fact the he yelled out “I have been betrayed”. Had he attacked Shivaji first, then there was no question of his yelling out that he had been betrayed.

Shivaji’s ensnaring and slaying of Afzal Khan proved that the Hindus had finally come of age in learning Muslim tricks of subterfuge. Tricks that was unheard of in ancient Hindu India and which would have been looked down upon according to the ancient Hindu rules of warfare. Shivaji’s attack on Afzal was a pre-planned one, and for which he used the Muslim psychology of killing their enemies, even if there was no immediate provocation. After Shivaji had wounded him, the Khan tried to attack Shivaji in self-defence by using his own dagger, and tried to stab Shivaji. But Afzal's dagger could not plunge into Shivaji Maharaj due to the protective armor which Shivaji was wearing, Afzal tried to throttle him. But the wily Maratha was more than prepared for this as he had come down not only with full armor that was hidden by his thick satin robes, but all his palanquin bearers were hardened Maratha warriors who had been armed to the teeth with their weapons hidden in their clothes and turbans. When Syed Banda, also a burly Muslim was about to strike Shivaji with his sword, Shivaji's bodyguard Jiva Mahalya struck off Banda's upraised arm in the air itself. After this commotion, the bleeding Khan tried to make good his escape and rushed into his palanquin. As the palanquin bearers set off with the fleeing Khan, Santaji Kawji, another of Shivaji's select warriors cut-off the feet of the bearers and Khans' palanquin, with its load of Afzal fell to the ground. Santaji Kawji, then finished off the task of sending Khan to his final resting place. Khan's army which was waiting in the valley was ruthlessly massacred by the Marathas who were hiding behind every crevice and bush in the densely wooded jungles around the Pratapgad fort. At the place where this encounter took place on 10th November 1659 between Shivaji Maharaj and the Khan, there stands today a Kabar (grave) erected by Shivaji for the departed Khan's soul to rest in peace. Thus for once a Hindu had outwitted a Muslim who was twice as strong and was also a towering giant.

Thus the Shivaji’s ensnaring and slaying of Afzal Khan proved that the Hindus had finally come of age in learning Muslim tricks of subterfuge. Tricks that were unheard of in ancient Hindu India and which would have been looked down upon according to the ancient Hindu rules of warfare. Shivaji’s attack on Afzal was a pre-planned one, and for which he used the Muslim psychology of killing their enemies, even if there was no immediate provocation.

The next Muslim Khan to come down 'literally' before Shivaji was Shaista Khan. On hearing Shivaji's depredations, Aurangzeb was furious and wanted to desperately crush this infidel upstart. He sent his uncle maternal Shaista Khan with a large and powerful army to checkmate Shivaji. But even this time the wily Maratha proved that brain was stronger than the brawn. Shaista Khan came into Maharashtra and started devastating towns, villages fields, temples, forts and everything that came in his path. To provoke Shivaji, Shaista Khan established his camp in Shivaji's home in Pune called Lal-Mahal. And to top it up, he put up his Harem in Shivaji's Devghar (prayer room). Shivaji bided his time for many months and one on fine day (night), he with a select band of Maratha Samurais, sneaked into Pune and into the Lal-Mahal. He tracked down the sleeping Khan to his bed. The Khan sensing that his time was up tried jumping out of the window. At that point Shivaji cut off the Khan's fingers with which he was holding on to the window sill. The Khan's wife started pleading before Shivaji to spare her husband's life as she considered Shivaji to be her brother. And so killing her husband would mean making her a widow, Shivaji spared the Khan's life. This was a mistake for which Shivaji was to pay dearly later. Shivaji made good his escape from the Khan's lair, but not before the treacherous Khan ordered his troops to give chase and try to capture the fleeing Shivaji. Here too Shivaji had tied burning torches to the horns of a herd of cows and bulls and with bells jangling making a ruckus like swords clashing. So instead of pursuing Shivaji who escaped into the night, the Muslim army went in the direction of this cows and bulls which they thought to be the Maratha army that Shivaji had brought out. But when they reached the cows and bulls, they were flustered when they realized the trick played on them by the shrewd Hindu. The Khan then, decided that enough was enough and returned to Delhi - without his fingers. This happened in April 1663. Shivaji, the Hindu (Maratha) king led the fierce and smart Hindu counter-attack that was to ultimately break the back of the Muslims in India and liberate the country from Muslim tyranny.

The Hindu counterattack had now begun in earnest. The Marathas after Shivaji managed to reach Delhi in 1720 and by 1756 A.D.; they had occupied the whole of Punjab to reach the border of Afghanistan. But after Shivaji, there were very few Maratha leaders who realized the depth of the Muslim threat. There were some like Mahadji Scindia, but they were very few. The later Marathas under their Prime Ministers called Peshwa (who came from the Hindu priestly class), opened negotiations with the Mughal (Muslim) King at Delhi and fought battles on their behalf against other Muslims like Nadir, the King of Persia and Ahmed Khan Abdali, the ruler of Afghanistan. This was a disastrous policy as the Maratha Hindus became a tool in the hands of the Muslims and suffered many defeats, the most disastrous one being at Panipat in 1761 A.D. at the hand of the Afghan invader Ahmed Khan Abdali.

Shivaji epitomized this successful Hindu counter-attack on Islam where he outdid the Muslims in their games of deceit, treachery, subterfuge, all gift-wrapped with the technique of guerilla warfare that gave the Muslims sleepless nights and nightmares to the Muslim tyrant Aurangzeb, who thought that he had begun to see the demise of Muslim power in India. With the Marathas it seemed that wisdom had finally dawned on some of the Hindus on the only effective way to counterattack the Muslims successfully. Using deceit and cruelty as a rule against the Muslim enemy, the Hindu Marathas seemed poised to dislodge Muslim power from India. They did it in Gujrat, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab and spread fear in Muslim heart in as far places as Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. They also controlled Delhi by default.

JATS

Traditionally involved in peasantry, the Jat community saw radical social changes in the 17th century; the Hindu Jats took up arms against the Mughal Empire during the late 17th and early 18th century. The Hindu Jat kingdom reached its zenith under Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur (1707–1763).

In the early 18th century, the farmers of Bharatpur were being terrorized and ill-treated by the Mughals. Harshness by a local faujdar, Abdun Nabi, provided the necessary spark of rebellion to the Jats. At this point of time, Churaman, a powerful Jat village headman, rose against this tyranny but was defeated harshly by the Mughals. This did not remain for long, since the Jats once again came together under the leadership of Badan Singh, and controlled a vast expanse of territory. The failure of the Rajputs to effectively subjugate the Jats, and the growing feebleness of the Mughal central government enabled the Jats under Badan Singh to carve out a separate state.

In the year 1707, Mughal ruler Aurangzeb passed away. In the same year a child was born. The child was Surajmal. Surajmal was born in February, 1707 in Bharatpur, India. He was the eldest son of the Jat emperor of Bharatpur, Maharaja Badan Singh. Surajmal virtually exercised the sole management of the affairs of the state of Bharatpur from 1725 due to poor health of Maharaja. On expiry of Maharaja Badan Singh in November 1745, Surajmal ascended to the throne of Bharatpur.

Raja Surajmal was the most famous of the Bharatpur rulers, ruling at a time of constant political turmoil around him. Using unmatched diplomatic vision, statesmanship and military tact, he led his state towards greatness. Raja Surajmal used all his power and wealth to a good cause, and built numerous forts and palaces across his kingdom, one of them being the Lohagarh Fort (Iron fort), which was one of the strongest ever built in Indian history. The inaccessible Lohagarh fort could withstand repeated attacks of British forces led by Lord Lake in 1805 when they laid siege for over six weeks. Having lost over 3000 soldiers, the British forces had to retreat. The Deeg palace is one of finest examples of architectural grandeur under Surajmal.

In 1750, Surajmal defeated a Mughal army and forced the signing of a treaty whereby the Mughals agreed to pay a handsome fee as war compensation, plus promising not to desecrate Hindu temples in Jat territory. Thus he proved his mettle against the mighty Mughals. In 1753, Surajmal’s forces also sacked Delhi. On 16 May, Jats attacked Delhi ferociously and defeated Sadil Khan and Raja Devidatta in a severe war. On 17 May, their army captured Ferozshah Kotla. (Some of his soldiers, of the Sinsinwar Jat clan, who had taken to Delhi, decided to stay behind and established villages like Katwarya Sarai). The Mughals had to seek help from the Marathas. The joint forces of the Mughals and the Marathas lay siege over the Jat fort of Kumher and were on the verge of capturing it when Surajmal, displaying diplomatic tact, requested the intermediation of Diwan Roop Ram Katara, who was on good terms with Jayappa Sindhia. The Sindhia ruler of Gwalior used his influence over Raghunathrao, brother of the Peshwa, to pressure the commander of the Maratha forces, Malharrao Holkar, into accepting a treaty with the Jats, which he did in 1754.

In the year 1760 Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Durrani (also known as Ahmed Shah Abdali) attacked Delhi. Marathas came out in support of Mugals. Initially Surajmal joined Marathas to drive away Abdali. He had a clear vision. He advised Marathas to fight light. Women and children must not be taken to battlefield; supply-line should be short but protected; Muslims should not be trusted and Delhi should be divided between Jats and Marathas after driving out both Pathan and Mugals. It was not agreed and Marathas fought and lost in the 3^rd battle of Panipath.

Surviving Marathas fled southwards. Exhausted and destitute, the Maratha soldiers entered the country of the Jats, who welcomed them to their hospitable doors and provided medicine, clothes and food for their relief. If Surajmal had not befriended the Marathas in their hour of adversity, very few of them would have crossed the Narmada to tell the woeful tale of Panipat to the Peshwa. And this he did at the imminent risk of incurring the wrath of Abdali. The treatment given to the Marathas by Bharatpur state angered Abdali. Abdali demanded one crore rupees from Surajmal as a penalty for helping his enemies. Unflinching in the face of adversity, Surajmal refused to pay such a huge amount to Abdali and make him all the more powerful. So he decided to go to war against Abdali. Surajmal engaged victorious Abdali in small battles. Ultimately Abdali left India same year.

Maharaja Surajmal decided to capture the Agra fort to re-establish his influence in the doab region. After laying siege to the fort for a month, Maharaja Surajmal captured the Agra fort on 12 June, 1761 (and it remained in the possession of Bharatpur rulers till 1774). He went to capture Farrukhnagar, Rewari and Rohtak in various conquests. By the end of 1763, Bharatpur state reached the zenith of its power under Surajmal.

In 1763 he attacked Delhi again. During the battle he was moving with 100 horsemen in the aid of his son. He was ambushed on the way. Thus ended valiant King’s life. But it has not gone in vain. Mugal shackle had been weakened and soon Muslim rule over India will end.

Rajputs

History of Rajput resistance is history of India. All warrier castes of India slowly called themselves as Rajputs. They were largely descendents of khsatriya caste of Hindu and ruling classes of various invading races like Shaka, Huna and Greeks. The Rajputs were devout Hindus and very courageous people. They would never indulge in lying, cheating or deceiving. When Muslim started attacking Indian frontiers the Rajputs defended. They defended courageously but they were not equipped against the Muslim practice of “War is deceit. “  In fact very rarely Muslim could defeat Indian resistance without deceit, treachery and backstabbing.

Slowly over 600 years, Rajputs lost out and Muslims conquered entire North India. Only peripheral states in Assam, Orissa, Nepal, Vindhyas and Himalayas and of course South India stood out. These places had geographical and geological advantages and the people by then learned to counter deceit by deceit. Another place in the heart of Muslim occupied land stood out. That is Rajasthan state and surrounding area. Rajasthan was the last bastian of Rajput resistance. Rajasthan is also a mountaneous arid land, having Thar desrt in its west. Rajasthan stood out not because of its inhospitable terrain but because of Rajput valour. Muslim attacks on Chittor (Mewar), Rajasthan are comparable to Muslim attack to Spain. Rajputs stood out in the face of all adverse situations. Then Mugals befriended Rajputs. Rajputs foolishly worked for Mugals and actually helped them to overrun other Hindu states. However, Rajputs never allowed Muslims to rule Rajasthan, their area of influence.

Rana Ratansen, Rana Kumbha, Rana Sanga, Rana Pratap, Rana Udai Singh and Rana Raj Singh were some of the bravehearts of Mewar. Rana Raj Singh actually taken Aurangajiv in captivity but released him against his promise of lifting Jijiya. Bravehearts like Hadas of Bundi, Yashovant Singh of Jaipur and  of Ajmer and many more. Muslims learned to leave Rajputs alone.

Unfortunately Rajput warriors never tried to spread out and defeat Muslims in bigger national scenario. Many Rajput kings are well known generals of Mugal kingdom. Islamization of Bengal has actually taken place under Mugal occupation and Mugal occupation was founded on victory of Raja Man Singh and his son Jagat Singh over then Bengali wariors known as 12 Bhuyans. If Rajputs joined Marathas and Jats, India would have been freed from Muslim shackles in eighteen century. India need have to wait for British to do the job.

Why the Marathas and the Sikhs failed to completely defeat the Muslims

After liberating large tracts of the country from Muslim rule, neither the Marathas nor the Sikhs followed the illustrious example of the Spanish Re-conquistadors of reconverting the Muslims to their original faith (Hinduism in this context). It was only because of the three alternatives of re-embracing Christianity, leaving Spain or facing death; which the Re-conquistadors gave to the defeated Spanish Moriscos (Moors or Muslims), that Spain regained its original Christian character. But there was no such thing happened in India that was liberated by the Marathas. In fact the Marathas stupidly accepted the Mughal (Muslim dynasty in India) court customs, their attires, and their habits except that of deceit in war and persecution and forced conversion of Hindus. Marathas failed in correcting historical wrongs done to the Hindus. The Maratha policy contrasted starkly with the coercion used by the Muslims to convert Hindus to Islam. This proved that for all their valor and skill on the battlefield, the Marathas like all other Hindus had not gauged the nature of the Muslim threat, as the Spanish Conquistadors had succeeded in doing so. Not only that, Marathas started fighting Muslim invaders to protect the Mughals. In the process Marathas were devasted by Shah Abdali of Afghanistan in 3^rd war of Panipat. It practically ended ascendancy of Marathas.

The saving grace was that the Marathas were not displaced again by the Muslims, but by the growing colonial power of the British in the year 1818. Later the Marathas disgracefully joined forces with the Muslims in 1857 to launch an uprising against the British. Fortunately this uprising failed to dislodge the British, but it marked the formal demise of Muslim power in India, as the British dethroned the last Muslim (Mughal) king of India, the wretched Bahadur Shah Zafar, a task which the Marathas should have done a century earlier when they became the dominant power in North India. But under the Macheivellian Peshwas who came from the crafty Hindu priestly class, they instead of dethroning the Mughal king, had made him a status symbol and tried to derive legitimacy for Maratha conquests in North India by asking for his seal of approval and wielding power in his name. It was both ironical and shameful that the Marathas collected taxes in North India as subsidiaries of the tottering Mughal king and not in their own right (as Shivaji Maharaj had done), although it was they who in fact controlled the Mughal king. And hence the destiny of formally ending Muslim rule in India laid with the British and not with the Marathas a task which the British thankfully did in 1857.

By comparison, British rule in India was looked upon by the Hindus as a relief from the ruthless Muslim tyranny. The departure of the British saw the Muslim clamor for the Muslim majority provinces to be cut off from India and made into a synthetic nation which they called Pakistan. This Muslim nation split into two parts when in 1971, the eastern wing of Pakistan split from the Western half, and formed a new nation named Bangla Desh. Today both Pakistan and Bangla Desh are at the forefront of fomenting Islamic Terrorism and promoting jihad. Both the erstwhile wings of Pakistan promote liquidation of remaining Hindu population. Both keep on trying to destabilize India with the aim of intimidating Indians to give in to Islam and become one more Terrorist nation like any one of the Muslim nations from Morocco to Indonesia.

India’s future

The future of India is bleak. It is not because of Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is not the strength of Islam. The weakness lies in Hinduism. The more a Hindu become Hinduized, he becomes more tolerant, relegating everything to fate, considering all misfortunes (attacks by Muslims) as divinely ordained. Hindus are the least capable of protecting themselves. They believe “joto mot toto path.”That is, all religions take you to God. Therefore when a Hindu girl is lured by a Muslim and converted for marriage, they just silently curse their fate and past life. They don't try to help. The hapless girl cannot come back even after she realizes her mistake. Islam does not permit her to leave and Hinduism cannot accept her back. On the other hand Islam is violent and jihad is its core concept. Hindu is powerless against Islam. They cannot fight Islam. They only advocate peace with Muslims even though Muslims call for the destruction of all religions, including Hinduism. Hindus feign magnanimity which is actually a belief in inevitability of fate and fear of Islam.

Secondly, Hindus have scant respect for History. History of Muslim persecution of Hindus is not only forgotten but refused to accept. Our history books conveniently remove such incidences. Even our historians openly lie with the false notion of creating good communal relation. Tipu Sultan is projected as a secular Muslim though his hands are bloodied from execution of Nairs and Namboodiries. We call Akbar- the great emperer, conveniently forgetting that he massacred 30 thousand peasants after victory in Chittor, forgetting killing of unconscious Hemu and his fleeing soldiers.

Hence the Hindus are the most ineffectual in containing Islam and in fact most Hindus would effectively be obstacles in the attempt to contain Islam and terrorism. Most Hindus would be sterile spectators of this process and some of them, in fact, would be trying to defend and save the Muslims. In 2002, Muslim mob burned down several bogies of a train near Godhra station in Gujrat, killing about 60 Hindu karsevaks. Gujrat started burning. In the ensuing riot about 2000 Muslim and 1000 Hindus lost lives. No Hindu press or intellengesia blamed Godhra train incident. Nobody demanded punishment of perpetrators of train burning where whole Muslim villages around Godhra participated. Nobody talked about Hindus dying in the riot. All were concerned with death of Muslim victims. It is the Hindu philosophy of self destruction.

Together with Hindu liberalism and Muslim fanatism India suffers from high breeding rate of Muslims. After one thousand year of forced conversion India stood at about 15% Muslim population when British came. In 1901 Muslims constituted 19%of population. In 1947 Muslims were 25% and India was divided. Today Muslims are 30% of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Muslims are 13% up by 50% from 8% base at the time of partition. What Muslim aggression could not do in 1000 years, Muslim capacity of breeding will do in next 200 years.

Considering weakness of Hindu liberalism, partition was a blessing. Now it will take at least two centuries for Muslims to become majority in India. Today Hindus are relatively safe but future of Hindu religion and its followers is not safe. But it will not be only end of Hindus of India; it will spell peril for humanity as well. If Indians become Muslim and join the ranks of terrorism, nobody will survive. Islamic doctrine will then be supported by intelligence of Indian mind. Therefore, India must be saved. Hinduism need to survive and for that Islam has to be destroyed.But before destructing Islam, Hindus, especially apologestic and Muslim sympathic Hindus should be liquidated as these people will obstruct the noble cause to their peril.