Here is the real patriot who never surrendered to the barbaric expansionist Akbar and reduced his ambitions of subordinating the spirit of Mewar to dust. Losing his capital city in the Battle of Haldighati in 1576, he, yet, recovered almost the entire mass of his lost territory in a protracted struggle lasting years and died a free man with head held high and a spirit undaunted with only his beloved Chittor beyond his imperial control.
Maharana Pratap remains the epitome of nationalism, the iconic inspirational figure who has instilled patriotism in the hearts of all subsequent nationalists who struggled to free India from Islamic and Euro-Christian colonial domination. His life after defeat at Haldighati is the stuff of legends despite it being a fact of chronicled history. His forest bearings, his feeding of the bare produce of the earth and sleeping on the ground, his relentless struggle to regain his lost kingdom and, so, preserve the freedom of his people and the continuance of their culture, all these have placed Maharana Pratap on a pedestal where patriotism alone abides, where self-dignity and honour hold supreme significance and where the corruption of convenient capitulation does not gain a footing even in conception, what to speak of concrete occurrence.
Maharana remains the idol for all of us in valour, love for the motherland, the spirit of sacrifice and service, fearlessness and fortitude, dignity and dutifulness, and above all, supreme devotion to the aspired cause of the preservation of the motherland's freedom. He is the epitome of all that the Rajputs held dear in their valorous warrior tradition and all that age-old India has held as worthy of the kshatriya, the defender of the faith. Our salutations to his memory ! Jai Mewar ! Jai Hind !
Written by Sugata Bose
No comments:
Post a Comment