VANDE MATARAM ... 8

VANDE MATARAM ... 8

We have suffered not just a few centuries of European colonial occupation with its Christianising corollary but several more centuries of Islamic occupation with its equally nefarious Islamic invasion of our society and culture. Both these Semitic influences have enormously harmed India and it is a tribute to the Hindu genius that we have triumphed in preserving much of our age-old spiritual culture despite incurring massive territorial and civilisational losses. The harmony that the Sanatan Dharma made possible even out of these antithetical religious elements that were bent on the destruction of the Mother Faith is proof of the catholicity of Hinduism and its grand power of assimilation.

We are taught that we had lost our freedom in 1757 at the hands of the British but nothing can be farther from the truth. We lost it when Sindh fell to Arab conquest in 712 C.E. Muhammad Bin Qasim dealt India a deathblow from which she is yet to recover. Today's Pakistan bears testimony to what we lost that day and Bangladesh has been added to it to boot. God bless Indian ignorance about India's history ! Vande Mataram !

Written by Sugata Bose