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

that now it was the Marathas, whom he had to face, that he retreated so
hastily and went clean out of India! Simply because of the dread of the
Marathas? In his wake, followed Abdali invading India thrice or four times,
every time with an army of not less than fifty thousand strong, made up of
the pick of Turkish, Iranian, Durani, Pathan soldiery. But how every time he
had to go back crestfallen, because of the armed counter-offensive of the
Marathas, how even in the turning of the scale of fortune and even after the
terrible losses for the Marathas at Panipat, he had to sign a treaty that the
direction of the Moghal imperial affairs at Delhi be left into the hands of the
Marathas, how he agreed not to interfere with it, in the least, and how,
relinquishing his high ambition to be the absolute and unlimited Emperor of
Delhi, he had to submit to the Marathas and go back, never to return, can
best be read by every Hindu from our book, Hindu Padpadshahi. It is going
to be referred to again in the following pages.
1055. Physical build, height and breadth and weight do count as important
and decisive factors in matters of personal combats. Even then, it cannot be
made a rule without exception! The grave of the monstrous Afzalkhan at
the foot of Pratapgad is evidence enough! But in the struggles of nations,
the chances of success or failure can never be assesed on the strength of
physical build, enduring capacity and the stubborness of constitution.
Didn’t the dwarfish Japanese lay the gigantic Russians low on the battlefield
in the first Russo-Japanese war—the towering and sturdy Russians in
comparison with whom the ‘true-born’ and ‘thorough-bred’ Pathans seem
absolute midgets? Our Hindu Gorkhas are veritable Marathas in respect of
stature. But haven’t these very Gorkhas vanquished the Italian, the Austrian
and the colossal Hitlerian German armies on various occasions and on
various battlefields in the last World War? The whole world still resounds
with the fame of the Gorkhas—‘A Hindu Gorkha means a gallant fighter’ is
a common place adage nowadays who once ruled as the invincible Emperor
of all the European nations like Germany, Russia and others, renowned for
their tall and sturdy soldiers, if not the ‘short’ Napoleon and his small
French army?
Abdali’s third invasion of India
1056. The Moghal Emperor had made Gazi-ud-din his chief minister
(Vizier), who went all the way along to Sarhind in Punjab in February,
1756, to appoint Adina Beg as the chief imperial officer there. Gazi-ud-din
acted in this case depending solely on the Maratha support, and this act of