भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

routed the enemy. These nations, with a long tradition of thousands of
years, are naturally proud of many such glorious moments recording their
signal victories over their enemies. The history of India, as compared to that
of other nations, has a consistent and unbroken record. Most of the nations
that nourished side by side with her in the past, are now extinct and are
remembered only by their names. China stands today as an old witness of
the greatness of India.
9. Both China and India are vast countries and have maintained their
independence and power right from the ancient days. No wonder they had
to face many more mortal dangers of foreign domination than the other
shortlived nations. The unerring wheel of fortune affected them too. Just as
India was attacked by the Sakas, the Huns, the Mughals and others, so was
China too a victim of the invasions of these and other alien nations. She had
to build the world-famous China Wall all around her territory as a bulwark
against the Hunnish inroads. Nevertheless, the enemies did conquer China,
sometimes by circumventing the great wall or at times, crossing it. Mostly
only in parts, but sometimes at least, wholly, China had to writhe and
squirm under the yoke of foreign domination. Yet, every time, she could
revive her strength and overthrow the foreign aggression and regain her
independence, and even today, she is an independent and powerful nation.
This in itself is a marvel of history. An appraisal of Indian history demands
the same criterion to be adopted. But specially when our country was
smarting under the British sway, many English writers had so much
perverted the Indian history and obliged two or three generations of Indian
students in their schools and colleges to learn it in such a way, that not only
the rest of the world, but even our own people were misled. Absurd and
malicious statements implying that India as a nation has always been under
some foreign rule or the other or that Indian history is an unbroken chain of
defeat after defeat of the Hindus, have been used like currency and are
accepted by our people without affront or remonstrance or even a formal
protest. To refute these statements is essential not only from the point of
view of the honour of the nation, but also for the sake of historical truth.
Efforts being made by other historians in this direction have to be
supported, as far as possible, by propaganda. That in itself is a national
duty. That is why, I have decided here to describe the historical
achievements of those generations and of their representative leaders who
vanquished the aggressors from time-to-time and liberated their country.