1857—FIRST WAR OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE::Commemorating the 150th Anniversary - By Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
Commemorating the 150th
Anniversary
1857—FIRST WAR OF
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE
Sadhu Prof. V.
Rangarajan
Founder & Spiritual Head, Sri
Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram &
Yogi Ramsuratkumar
Indological Research Centre,
Sister Nivedita Academy, Sri Bharatamata Mandir
Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, BANGALORE 560 036
email:
sadhurangarajan@vsnl.com;
Phone: 080-25610935
/25613716, Cell: 09448275935
The Land of the Brave
People of ancient world respected and revered the
glorious scientific, cultural and spiritual heritage of Bharatavarsha dating
back to the Vedic period beginning somewhere around 10,000 BC. Seekers of
knowledge and wisdom came from distant lands to sit at the feet of the
preceptors of this land to acquire the scientific and technological wisdom of this
land and also to learn the meaning and purpose of human existence. Those who
came in search of knowledge and wisdom were given a cordial welcome and
extended the hospitality of the Hindu Nation. However, those who came out with
drawn out sword to aggress and subjugate this land were thrown out by the
valiant warriors of this land. Therefore this land came to be known as "Veera
bhogyaa vasundaraa"—the land of the brave.
The heroic kings and emperors of Bharatavarsha had
fought incessant battles against the aggressors on this land, right from the
time of invasions by Shakas, Hunas, Mongols and Turks followed by the earliest
Muslim invasions by Mohammed Gazhani and Mohammed Ghori and valiant heroes like
Rana Pratap Singh, Chatrapati Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh could successfully
prevent the Mogul invaders from spreading their empire all over the country.
Following the fall of the Mogul Empire, many regional kings, satraps, and
feudal lords in different parts of the country became powerful rulers in their
respective areas.
The fall of India has never been because of
the might or higher military strength of the aggressors, but every time it was
only because of the betrayal of our own people who stood by the aggressors to
destroy our own country's independence. It was Jayachandra, own uncle of
Prithviraj, who joined hands with Ghori to destroy the Hindu kingdom of Prithviraj. Similarly, during the
Mogul rule, Hindu chieftains like Raja Mansingh, stood by the aliens to betray
our own valiant heroes.
The Entry of the British
After the fall of Mogul Empire, the mutual strife
and war among the Indian rulers gave an opportunity to the Portuguese, French
and the British, who came as merchants into this country, to take advantage of
the chaotic situation inside the country, set the kings and rulers against each
other, and slowly swallow their kingdoms one after the other. The British who wanted to
subjugate this country made it a point to destroy our culture as well as
prosperity of the land and drive the people to poverty and helpless dependence
on them The various measures that the British took destroyed our agriculture
and industries. The British, who set up the East India Company in this land to
do business, found the soil fertile for aggression and set the Muslims against
the Hindus and one Hindu king against another. After the Plazy War of 1757, in
which they defeated the Bengal Nawab Sirajuddaula who was betrayed by his own
chieftain Mir Jaffer, became the rulers in this land. The vast army they
constituted in this country consisted of a handful of British soldiers in
command and thousands of mercenaries recruited from the Indian population.
However, the rulers of Bharat did fight incessant battles
against the British. The Wandavashi War of 1760. The Buxar war of 1763, The
Anglo Mysore Wars of 1767-69, 1780, 1789 and 1790, The Anglo Maratha Wars of
1775-82, 1803 and 1817-18, the Gurkha War of 1814-16, the Anglo-Sikh Wars of
1838, 1845 and 1849, the Sannyasi Rebellion of 1773, the Sannyasi Rebellion of
1773, the rising up of great heroes like Veera Pandya Kattabomman (1792-99) and
his brother Umai Thurai in Tamilnadu, Velu Thambi Dalavai (1808-09) and
Pazhassi Raja in Kerala (1796-1804), Kittoor Rani Chennamma and Sangoli Rayanna
in Karnataka (1824-29), and the Vellore Mutiny, which was just a rehersal of
1857 uprising, were all part and parcel of the incessant struggle of the
children of Bharat against the British
rule.
1857 War—Well Planned and Nationwide
The War of 1857 was the first nationwide, organized and
well-planned attempt to overthrow the British rule, launched by the people of India under the leadership of
various kings, rulers and feudal lords from Kandahar to Kamakhya and Kashmir to Kanyakumari. As R.C.
Majumdar has rightly pointed out, the fire of revolution spread from Kolhapur in the South to Peshawar in the North, Gujarat in the West to Bihar in the East. And it was
'continual upsurge of a popular character'.
Azimullah Khan, the right hand man of Nana Saheb Peshwa, and Rangoji
Bapu, the emissary of Satara Kingdom met in London to chalk out a detailed
plan. Rangoji travelled to Turkey, Russia, and Egypt to seek support for the
revolution in India. Azimullah and Nanasaheb
travelled throughout the country to contact various kings, chieftains and feudal
lords for a nationwide uprising. He travelled to Varanasi, Prayag, Bateswar, Gaya, Puri, Panchavati,
Rameswaram, Dwaraka, Nasik, Abu, Ujjain, Badri and Kamrup and
visted army camps to inspire the soldiers.
Nana Saheb also wrote hundreds of letters to the kings and feudal lords
regarding the preparations for the revolution. Nana had also raised a fund of
five lakh pounds and deposited in British Banks for the purpose of
revolution. The circulation of 'lotus' among
the self-respecting and patriotic soldiers in the army camps of the British
rulers and 'chappatis' among rural people all over the country to alert them
for the uprising was an amazing feat.
The British Government's '1813 Charter Act, Section
23' set the base for conversion of people in India into Christianity. The
speed with which the British proceeded with their plans to convert first all
the Hindu and Mussalman soldiers in the British Indian Army and then the people
of the country into Christianity by destroying their religious faith and their
plan to introduce cartridges containing fat of the cow and the pig to destroy
the religious sentiments of the Hindus and Muslims respectively, triggered the
explosion of the war even before its scheduled date. The uprising that started
in Barrackpur with the first shot fired by Mangal Pandey against the British
commandant, on March 29, 1857, spread like a wild fire to Meerut, Jhansi,
Kanpur and Delhi. Revolution sprang up in Kalpi, Bihar, in Satara and Puna in
Maharashtra, in Hyderabad, Rajamundry, Guntur and Kadappa in Andhra, Mysore,
Karvar and Koppal in Karnataka, Madras, Chinglepet, North Arcot, Salem,
Tanjore, Coimbatore, Tinneveli in Tamilnadu and Talasseri in Kerala.
Betrayal of Our Own Brethren
The cunning British knew very well the art of setting
the Hindus against the Muslims, the Sikhs against the Marathas and the Marathas
against the Sikhs, and both against the Rajputs. The Sikhs, the Nepalis and the
Scyndia ruler of Gwalior betrayed the valiant
freedom fighters. Though Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mogul whom the freedom
fighters wanted to make the Indian Emperor, was acceptable to Hindu rulers as
he was a Sufi and even proclaimed ban on cow slaughter as his first act
immediately after he was proclaimed as emperor, and Amir Ali and Ramachandradas
of Ayodhya even declared to rebuild the Rama Mandir in Ayodhya, the Sikhs and a
section of the Marathas could not accept the Mogul, perhaps because of their
memories of the past Muslim atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs, and they thought
that the British rule was preferable to Muslim rule once again. The Sikhs of
Punjab, the Hindu rulers of Nepal and Gwalior and even rulers of Hyderabad and Mysore sided with the British and
betrayed the valiant revolutionaries. The British crushed the Indian War of
Independence with the help of Indian mercenaries and Indian rulers.
Martyrdom of Great Heroes and Heroines
The martyrdom and self-sacrifice of the great heroes
and heroines of 1857 War of Independence has been written in golden letters in
the annals of Indian history. Even today, the children in the remote villages
of northern India sing the glory of the
heroes and martyrs in ballads and folk songs. Among them, the name of Jhansi
Rani Lakshmibai has been immortalized by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan whose immortal
song, "Khoob ladee mardaanee…Vah tho Jhansi wali Raanee thee" is on the lips of
every Hindi speaking child of Bharat. She was the second wife of Gangadhar Rao.
When the British refused to recognize her adopted son as the heir apparent to
the Jhansi throne, she vowed not to lose the kingdom to the
British and joined Nana Saheb and Tatya tope, and raised her sword against the
British. She captured Gwalior. However, the British
forces soon overpowered her. She fought like a lioness. Refusing to be held
captive by the enemy, she fell fighting on the battlefield. Even the British
commandant, Huge Rose, praised the valour, courage and martyrdom of the Rani.
Nana Saheb, adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, the king pin of the revolution,
and Azimullah Khan took refuge in Nepal and died as free men in
1859. Mangal Pande who fired the first shot in the battle was caught and
hanged. Kunwar Singh of Jagadishpur, Shahabad, Bihar, marched towards Delhi. He reached Arrah and
inflicted crushing defeat on Le Grand's troops. However, because of a fatal
wound, he died the following day as a victor. Tatya Tope alias Ramachandra
Pandurang, waged a bitter battle at Bittur and proceeded to Gwalior. However, he was betrayed
by Man Singh and was captured and executed by the British on April 18, 1859. Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon and he died a pathetic
death there. The British butchered all his kith and ken.
The 1857 War resulted in increase in the British
forces and the machinations of the white man to bring clash between Hindus and
Muslims. The efforts of some British historians to present the 1857 uprising as
just a mutiny of some soldiers could not find acceptance by eminent historians
who have well documented the events of the war. J.B. Mallison's "History
of Indian Mutiny", Kayee's "History of Sepoy War", the articles
published in 'The Times', Karl Marx's articles of the period in The
New York Tribune which have come out in the form of a Soviet publication,
"The First Indian War of Independence 1857-1859" and Veer Savarkar's
historic work, "The Indian War of Independence (National Rising of
1857)" all point out to the fact that it was a national uprising. More
than three lakhs of people were killed, thousands hanged from tree tops in the
villages, thousands jailed, thousands of innocent women and children who were
suspected to have helped the revolutionaries thrown into village wells, and
many freedom fighters deported to Rangoon and Andamans and thousands of
soldiers court-martialed. Quoting Keyees and Mallison, Lala Lajpatrai points
out that for three months, daily 8 cartloads of corpses were collected and six
thousand people were hanged from treetops and in market places. Disraeli called the War of 1857 as
"epoch-making event in human history".
Role of Sadhus and Sannyasins in Freedom Struggle
Behind all the
movements for national liberation, there has been the role of Hindu Dharma and
the Dharmacharyas. Hindu seers discovered that the entire manifest universe is
the manifestation of one Cosmic Energy or Consciousness—Force.
Modern scientists like Max Plank agree that the world is manifestation of
Energy that arises out of Consciousness. Sages and saints of Bharat who have
realized the Truth and identified themselves with the Supreme Consciousness
have also realized that the land of Bharatavarsha is not just a geographical
territory with hills, dales, rivers and mountains, but the manifestation of
that Consciousness and the nucleus of the entire universe—Consciousness-Force
or Mahashakti who is destined to become the preceptor of the entire mankind to
teach them the meaning and purpose of human life. They could never compromise
with loss of freedom and therefore they have always been behind the movements
for the liberation of the Motherland whenever She has been attacked by the
aliens. It was that spirit of protecting the Dharma of the nation that united
many kings and emperors of the land to stand by the Pandavas in the
Mahabaharata war and it was the lack of vision of that Dharma and love of
Motherland that made Jayachandran to betray Prithviraj Chauhan when
Mohammad Ghori attacked Hindusthan. We find this spiritual force behind the
movements of Guru Gobind Singh, Chatrapatio Shivaji and the building up of
Vijayanagar Empire. Samarth Ramdas was behind the building up of Hindu
Padpadshahi of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Vidyaranaya's spiritual force was behind
the building up of Vijayanagar Empire. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, who was a
witness to the 1857 War, wrote the famous novel "Ananda Math",
and depicted in it the history of the Sannyasi Rebellion of 1773 and
incorporated in it the immortal song, Bande Mataram, to make Hindus
realize that the fall of Hindusthan was because of the forgetfulness of the
fact that Bharatamata is the Supreme Goddess to be adored and worshipped by Hindus.
He stressed the need to worship Bharatamata by the entire Hindu society to make
Hindus strong and united.
In the 1857 war as well as the earlier movements,
Sannyasis played a major role. The first was Swami Omanand of the Himalayas.
In 1857, he was 162 years old. His disciple, Swami Purnanand of Kankal, Hardwar,
was 100 years old. The latter's disciple Swami Virajanand was 79 years old and
his successor, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, was 33
years old. All the four of them played a
very significant role. The four great persons organized 2000 Sadhus and
Sants to spread the message of liberation throughout the country. Swami Omanand
convened an assembly of sadhus, sants, fakirs and mutt heads at Hardwar
in 1855. Feroze Shah, the son of Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, Bala Saheb
Mahratta, Rango Bapu, Maulana Azimullah, Ramjaan Baig, and Nana Saheb Peshwa
attended the gathering. Nana Saheb and Prince Feroze Shah donated 5000 rupees
to the Sadhu organization. The second assembly was held under the presidentship
of Swami Purnanand, on October 5, 1855
at Garh Ganga Mela. Sai Fakruddin, highly respected in Delhi
Court, was vice-chairman. About 2500 people
attended. Again after six days, another
assembly was convened by Swami Purnanand in the hills near Hardwar
in which 370 Hindu sadhus and 195 Muslim fakirs attended. Among these, the
blind sadhu, Swami Virajanand, and Swami Dayanand were also present. In 1855,
Swami Dayanand went to the hermitage of Swami Purnanand at Mathura
where a secret meeting took place. Chaudhari Mohar Singh of Shamli, District
Muzaffarnagar, Jat Dada Sahaimull of Bijraul, District Meerut, Chaudhuri Daya
Singh Jat of Dhakauli, District Merut, the Delhi Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar,
Nana Sahib, Tantia Tope, Raja Kunwar Singh, Begum Hazarat Mahal, wife of the
Nawab of Luknow, Maulana Azimullah, Rango Bapu, and Rani of Jhansi attended the
meeting. In 1856, the main leaders of the freedom movement gathered under the
leadership of Swami Virajanand and chalked out the form of the freedom movement
of 1857. The account of Mir Mustaq Mirasi (Mir Elahi), who attended the
gathering, has been published in the Urdu language paper, Milap,
published from Jullundar, Punjab, on Ocotber 12, 1969,
and in the Hindi magazine, Arya Maryada, published from Delhi.
The "Raja Mahedra Pratap Abhinandan Granth" authored by Ramnarayan
Agarwal includes this account of Mir Mustaq. Therein he says, "Nana Sahib
Peshwa, Maulvi Azimullah Khan, Rango Bapu, and the son of the Emperor Bahadur
Shah, gifted Ashartees (gold coins) with great respect." Swami Virjananda
was the driving force behind the movement.
Swami Giriraj, in his book, "San 1857 ke
Swatantratasangram se Swarajyapravartak Maharshi Swami Dayanand Saraswati ka
Kriyaatmak Yogdaan" (Maharish Swami Dayanand's Contribution to the
1857 Independence Struggle), on page 12, presents the details. In Samvat 1913,
1856 AD, Swami Dayanand arrived at Hardwar
and made his residence at the Chandi Mandir on the Neel Parwat. Nana Saheb
Peswa alias Dhondhupant, Bala Sahib, Azimullah Khan, Tantia Tope and Kunwar
Singh met the Swami in a secluded place and discussed the plan of revolution.
Swamiji took upon himself the role of organizing the Sadhu organization. Two
other revolutionaries, Raja Govind Rai and Rani Laxmi Bai also came in touch
with the Swami. Seven or eight days after Rani of Jhansi left, Nana Saheb came
to meet the Swami. The Swami gave him rupees 1101 received from Govind Rai,
1101 from Rani of Jhansi and 633
received from ordinary folk. Swamiji also cautioned Nana Saheb: "Leading a
people, and playing with fire, both are dangerous. A small error can mean total
destruction. Be careful. The message of revolution must spread throughout India
by stealthy means." The fact that there is no account of Swamiji's life
from 1857 to 1860 indicates that Swamiji took a major part in the 1857
independence movement. Swami Dayananda was a patriot saint and he wrote in Satyaarth
Prakaash, "No matter how much anyone does, Self-Government is always
supreme."
Because of the right understanding of the national
dharma, many great sadhus and sants were behind the patriotic movements of
great warriors and revolutionaries. Impelled by the devotion to the Divine
Mother Bharatamata, Vasishtha Ganapathi Muni wrote his magnum opus, Uma
Sahasram, but the British Government tried to seize the manuscript and the
saint buried it in the sand on a riverbed in Tiruvannamalai. Because of
torrential rain in the night, it was washed away. However, he sat with his ten
disciples in the presence of Bhagavan Ramana and by the grace of the great sage
of Tiruvannamalai, the thousand verses poured out of his mouth once again and
his disciples recorded them.
The Struggle that continued from 1857 to 1947
The uprising of 1857 ended only with the attainment
of Independence in 1947. Immediately after the uprising,
revolutionary movements sprang up throughout the length and breadth of the
country. The Yugantar and Anusheelan Samity in Bengal, the Gaddar movement in
Punjab, Abhinav Bharat in Maharashtra and the Bharatamata Sangham in Tamilnadu
kept alive the burning embers of 1857 revolution and Lala Har Dayal, Veer
Savarkar, Champakaraman Pillai, and Rash Bihari Bose carried the fire of
revolution across the sea to distant lands where the children of Mother India
had settled. "1857—First War of Indian Independence" by Veer Savarkar
found repeated publication of underground copies by Lala Har Dayal, Bhagat
Singh and Netaji Subhas Bose. It became the Gira of the revolutionaries and
along with the works of Swami Vivekananda, was in the possession of every
revolutionary. In Talwar, in 1909, Veer Savarkar wrote that the idea of
writing the book on 1857 was not merely to create a record of history, but to
kindle burning passion for struggle. The movement for the liberation of the
Motherland which continued from there got inspiration from Swami
Vivekananda. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
who was inspired by Swami Vivekananda consolidated the efforts of all these
revolutionary movements into the founding of the Azad Hind Fauz.
Netaji—the Real 'Father of the Nation'
India won its Independence not through any non-violent
struggle, but the final blow was given by the armed struggle of Netaji only.
Evidences have come out to prove that Gandhi was planted in Indian National
Congress by Lord Ampthill to wean away the Indian people from the influence of
revolutionaries and extremists in the Congress, like Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin
Chandra Pal and Lokamanya Tilak. At a time when Congress in India was divided into two
opposing groups—the extremists and the moderates—Gandhi had started the Natal
Indian Congress in South Africa. Lord Ampthill wrote a
letter to Gandhi asking about his ideas. Gandhi wrote in his reply that he was
a “loyal citizen of British Empire” and he would never support the extremists. Lord Ampthill summoned Gandhi and Gokhale to London and in his parley with
them, advised Gandhi to go to India and take over the Congress
organization by pushing out the extremists and revolutionaries. Gandhi did
exactly the same thing. He refused to intervene to save the life of the great
patriot and martyr, Bhagat Singh, who was sentenced to death by the British
though he pleaded for mercy to be shown to his "Muslim brother" who
assassinated the great patriot saint, Swami Shraddhanand. Gandhiji succeeded in
throwing out Netaji Subhas from the Congress even though Netaji defeated
Gandhiji's candidate, Pattabhi Seetaramayya, in the 1938 Tripura Congress
Presidential election. However, Veer Savarkar advised Netaji to leave the shores
of the country and go to Germany and Japan to organize the Indian war
prisoners held captive by Japan and Germany and persuade them to fight
for the liberation of their own Motherland. The Indian National Army conquered
Andaman and Nicobar Islands and named them as Swaraj and Shaheed Islands respectively. On 30th December 1943, the flag of Free India Government was
hoisted by Netaji. Though Japan and Germany withdrew from the World War
thereby upsetting the plans of Netaji, the INA soldiers who penetrated into the
Indian Army, Navy and Air Force created mutiny in the three wings of Indian
military in 1946, forcing the British to wind up their empire in India. Netaji did not die in plane
crash as was propagated, but he was imprisoned in Siberia. Gandhi and Nehru knew this
but made no efforts to get him released. Shri K.S. Sudharshanji, Sarsanghchalak
of Rashtreeya Swayamsevak Sangh, has in his recent speech on 1857, rightly
demanded the Government of India to table the report of Mukherji Commission
which has gone into the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, in
Parliament, and has alleged that the reluctance to do so raises questions about
its content. He has claimed that two Indian ambassadors, including Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit, had met Bose in a Russian jail in 1946. He further says, Netaji
after some time, arrived in India and settled near Ayodhya as
Gumnami Baba and died in 1985. He has pointed out that the forensic test of
Baba's handwriting matched with that of Netaji. The Netaji Enquiry Commission had all the
detailed information about this but the commission report is still concealed by
the Government. Truth will however come out one day or other.
Earl Atlee, the British Prime Minister, confessed in
the British Parliament that Britain had to give up empire in India because (1)
the British army was shattered in the World War and Britain could not afford to
send troops to India to maintain the empire, (2) the Indian mercenaries in the
Indian Army, Navy and Air Force could not any more be relied upon and had
revolted under the influence of INA creating mutiny in the three wings of
military, (3) the non-violent movement of Gandhiji, which the British expected
to keep the Indian people passive, had totally failed and the quit India
movement turned violent forcing Gandhiji to withdraw his movement, and in these
conditions, the British could not hold on to their empire in India.
Free and United India—Still
A Dream
Though the British left India
and the country gained Independence,
.the real Freedom is yet to come. The country was vivisected by the cunning
British, creating a Muslim majority Pakistan
which later got divided into Pakistan
and Bangla Desh. Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo
in his talk on the AIR on the occasion of Indian Independence on August 15, 1947, also stressed, “the
partition of the country is unnatural and it must be undone at any cost”. The
Akhand Hindusthan is yet to be realized. In the name of 'Secularism', the
national ethos of the Hindu Nation have been totally uprooted. The Hindu race
and nation is still groping in darkness. Like Socrates who was searching with a
lantern in hand, in broad daylight in the market place in Greece,
to find a 'man', we have to search to find a patriotic Hindu in India
today.
It is only the spiritual force of Bharatavarsha that
could save the country and our people. For that we have to reestablish the
ancient Dharma of the land which looks upon man as the manifestation of
Divinity. For that the message of Mahakavi Bharati, “Worship the Akhand Bharata
as the Supreme Goddess” is once again to be spread. In ancient past, the
country which consisted of various states like swarajyam, baujyam,
parameshthyam rajyam, remained united under one powerful emperor who was
elected through the system of Ashwamedha Yaga. The one who successfully
performed the Yaga, promptly returned all the conquered territories to the
respective kings who in turn accepted the suzerainty of the emperor. Great
warrior saints like Parasurama and Viswamitra extended the territories of
Bharatavarsha up to the Indian Ocean in south. The Gayatri
mantra was given by Vishwamitra to a tribal girl, Ugra, in one of his
expeditions to the South. It is not selfishness, but self-sacrifice as
exhibited by the great kings and emperors that will save our Bharat. For that
we must spread the cult of adoration and worship of Bharatamata as the Mother
of all gods and goddesses. Worship of Bharatamta as the Supreme Goddesses and
service to Her is the greatest sacred ritual that a true Hindu should perform.
Children of Mother India1 Keep up the spirit of love
and adoration of the Motherland exhibited by the great martyrs and patriots of
the land, lest the hard won freedom will be lost once again to the aliens! Keep
the picture of Bharatamata in the sanctum sanctorum of your shrines at home as
well as in temples and adore and worship Her along with your personal deities.
Worshipping Bharatamata will not only save our great nation, but also
contribute to the upliftment of humanity by protecting spiritual freedom of
mankind. We should all think of ourselves as Bharatiyas first and last, and not
a Kannadigas, Tamils, Telugus, or Marathas or Muslims, Christians, Vaishnavites
or Shaivites.
Hindus Should Learn Lessons from History
One hundred and fifty years
ago, Karl Marx analyzed the condition of Bharat and wrote: "A country not
only divided between Mussalman and Hindu, but between tribe and tribe, between
caste and caste, a society whose framework was based on a sort of equilibrium,
resulting from a general repulsion and constitutional exclusiveness between all
its members. Such a country and such a society, were they not the predestined
pray of conquest?" The people of India should sit and ponder over this
statement and find out whether the conditions in the country today is in any
way different from what it was a century and a half ago. We do not have patriot
saints like Swami Dayananda, SwamiVivekananda and Sri Aurobindo in our midst
today nor do we have self-sacrificing leaders like Rani of Jhansi, Nana Saheb,
Kunwar Singh, Tantia Tope, Veer Sarvarkar, and Netaji Subhas Bose. The great
patriot-saint, Swami Rama Tirtha pointed out in his time that there were more
than five lakhs of sadhus and sannyasins in the country and most of them were
"useless scum" living a parasitic existence in the name of religion.
Today, we have more than fifteen lakhs of Sadhus, sants, mathadheeswars and
mission leaders, but how many of them are ready to sacrifice their everything
including their positions and possessions to come out openly to defend the Hindu
cause and fight for the Hindu rights. Everyone sings "Go maataa ki
jai" in the morning and evening prayers, but no one is prepared to go
to jail or sacrifice his life for the protection of the Go Mata demanding total
ban on cow slaughter in this holy land. Everyone sings the glory of Hinduism,
the Vedas and Upanishads and the Puranas and Itihasas, but keep away when it is
a question of fight to protect the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya or the Ram Setu in
Rameswaram or for the rights of the Hindus in this Hindu Nation. When will
Mother Bharat give birth to valiant sons and daughters and true sadhus and
sants once again? When will Hindu society learn the lessons from past history
and when will they proudly proclaim that this is their Eternal Motherland, the
Hindu Nation, Bharatavarsha? Time alone could answer!
(Summary of extempore talks delivered by Sadhu
Rangarajan in three different gatherings to commemorate the 150th
Anniversary of 1857 War of Independence, at Bangalore, in May-June, 2007.)
Contact Details:Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan
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