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

accomplished, this Hindu Emperor disbursed amongst the thousands of
soldiers of his caste, the immense wealth, which he had pillaged in his
conquest of Malabar by vanquishing the Hindu states and which had filled
the coffers of the late Sultan Mubarik, along with the unlimited wealth
accumulated during the regimes of the former Sultans. Similarly, he
increased the pay-scale of both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Having won
over his soldiery in this way, he introduced new reforms, gave to the
farmers and common Hindu-Muslim citizens facilities, and allowed them
concessions they were never allowed to enjoy by any of the former Sultans!
Likewise, he set free thousands of Hindu prisoners who were interned as a
diversion in religious persecution and the hundreds of Muslims, who were
imprisoned simply because they were repugnant to the former Sultans for
one reason or another. No wonder if this Hindu Emperor, Dharmarakshak,
immediately became popular amongst the Hindus as well as the Muslims
throughout his empire!
785. It is needless to say that he also absolved all the Hindus of all the
humiliating bans on their pilgrimages and holy baths. The Jizia tax was
repealed and other degrading conditions that had been enforced upon them
by Sultan after Sultan were ameliorated forthwith. What wonder then if the
whole Hindu world felt a thrill of joy and freedom that at long last, they had
a saviour!
786. Even when this Hindu Samrat was fighting in the guise of a
converted Muslim, victoriously in the South and reducing Malabar, he had
been formulating the scheme of the future revolution. So, all the big Hindu-
Muslim officers and generals in the fighting forces, who depended on his
patronage and who had risen mainly because of his support, of course,
remained loyal to him for safeguarding their own selfish interests and also
for protecting themselves from the malice and enmity of the old Muslim
Khans, Nizams, and other co-religionists of theirs. For, as a natural
consequence of intermingling of the two religious communities, Muslims
serving in the armies of many Hindu States had come to form a habit of
rendering loyal service to their Hindu masters! The political service of a
Hindu King was taboo formerly when the Muslims first came to India, but
by this time, the taboo had lost its intensity and in its stead such a loyal
service rendered to a Hindu master came to be considered quite in
conformity with the Muslim religious code! Many incidents illustrating this
point have already occurred so far, and will occur in the following pages

too. Although acceptance of any high office under a Hindu ruler was no
more considered contrary to the Muslim religious law, the staunch
moulanas and moulavis, however, looked upon such acts as necessary
exceptions and bore a secret grudge in their hearts that they were time
bombs laid under the Muslim political power! Never from the very
beginning, did the Hindus consider it contrary to their religious code to fight
in the Muslim army on the side of the Muslims! It was only the exchange of
food and women in marriage with the Muslims which endangered the
sanctity of their religion! How foolish and suicidal to think so!
786A. This Hindu Emperor did not rest with the mere declaration of his
adherence to Hinduism, but he fearlessly began to bring it into action in the
presence of the Muslims. Idols of Hindu gods and goddesses were
immediately installed in the holiest of places of Muslim civilization, the
Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas in the royal palaces of Delhi. All the
worships and all the religious rites in royal palaces began to be performed
according to the Hindu ritual. Loud chanting of Hindu mantras and singing
of Hindu devotional songs took the place of the ‘Ayats’ in the Koran! This
Hindu Emperor himself and the hundreds amongst his old Hindu battalions,
who had remained Hindus from the beginning and who were guarding the
royal palace, paid scrupulous attention to the protection and proper worship
of these new idols of Hindu gods and goddesses. The enthusiasm and
vigour of the Hindu citizens and especially of the Hindu soldiers in the
capital knew no bounds! Just as formerly the aggressive Muslims
completely demolished the godly idols in the Hindu temples and turned
them into Muslim masjids immediately after they conquered any Hindu
capital, so did these counter-revolutionary Hindus install new images of
their gods in every masjid as a retaliatory measure, and most ceremoniously
converted the masjids into Hindu temples and filled them with loud
chanting of mantras. It is only by this counter-attack of the Hindu Parias
that the fanatic Muslims could ever have had any idea of the pangs of
humiliation and grief that might have rankled in the hearts of the Hindu
community, which had grown feeble because of their malady of religious
tolerance, when the Muslims polluted the Hindu temples by cow-slaughter
and turned them into masjids.
787. It might be true that in the heat and excitement of this unheard of and
unprecedented religious revolution, the Muslim scriptures, some Muslim
writers charge, might have been exposed to ridicule or shame. But at least

the Muslims, who considered to be Gazis, those scoundrels, who destroyed
the whole university of Nalanda in flames and sat warming themselves at
that bonfire and laughed scornfully and shamelessly as the valuable
religious books of the Hindus were being reduced to ashes, had no moral
right whatsoever to blame this incendiarism against the Muslim religion!
787A. This Hindu Samrat converted with their willing consent the young
wives, daughters and nieces of the earlier Sultans and other Muslim women
to Hinduism and married them to his Hindu Paria followers.
788-789. But more than this, this Hindu Dharmarakshak did not do!
Even the Muslim historians do not mention any atrocities or religious
persecution or plunder as having been committed by this Hindu Emperor as
the Muslim aggressors were wont to do after overpowering any Hindu
State. As against the wholesale forcible conversion of the Hindus, the brutal
ravaging of Hindu women, the reckless destruction of Hindu property and
temples, the Muslim historians have no grievous crime to attribute (impute)
to this Hindu Emperor! Even if he had committed the very same atrocities
on the Muslim community as a revenge against the Muslim diabolism
towards the hapless Hindus, it would have been not a bit derogatory, but all
the more glorious for this revolutionary Hindu Emperor! The non-Hindu
aggressors would have taken the fright of their lives as never before, and it
would have proved a deterrent to their perfidious activities! We have
already made it amply clear that it is only the fierce retaliation that destroys
atrocity, root and branch!
790. But the main reason why this Defender of Faith (Dharamarakshak
Nasir-ud-din) did not commit any such revengeful atrocities on the Muslims
must probably be his keen sense of the strength and weakness of his side.
Were the whole of the Hindu community in the Indian sub-continent and the
ruling Hindu kings of the time to lend him their immediate and active
support—had his example in Delhi of reconverting to Hinduism the
converted Muslims at their own free will, of turning masjids into Hindu
temples and of other revolutionary activities of his, been copied in various
towns and cities of India from Rajputana to Southern capitals—and had the
Hindus risen openly against the Muslims and if the proclamation of the
success of Hinduism were published openly, this Hindu Emperor would
have persecuted the Muslims as were the Hindus actually before them and
would have also launched a special military offensive against the Muslims
and would have made it impossible for them to live as Muslims!

791. But the Hindu kings and Hindu people in general did not openly
     support this Hindu political revolution. They were, however, inwardly
     proud of it and overjoyed at it. They did appreciate this utter humiliation
     and ruination of the Muslim Sultanate at the hands of this Hindu
     Dharmarakshak ‘Nasir-ud-din’. The Hindu kings and the Hindu society at
     large nevertheless refrained from attempting any open revolt. The one
     reason why the Hindu Society failed to attempt the establishment of a
     Hindu Empire at this most opportune moment, was that the Hindus
     harboured serious doubts whether this undreamt of revolution would
     succeed. If that revolution were to fail, they feared, the followers would
     never escape complete annihilation. So, the Hindu community only waited.
     Secondly, the entire Hindu society never approved of the mass conversion
     of Muslims to Hinduism that was effected in and around Delhi as a sound
     religious practice! The Hindu Dharma of the day meant ban on
     reconversion, not reconversion! Religious tolerance had been their religion
     because of their perverted sense of values; their religion never brooked
     either the demolishing of masjids or converting the Muslims to Hinduism.
     This sort of reactionary measure was considered by the Hindus to be the
     greatest sin! So, who could have predicted that the Hindu society itself
     would not oppose tooth and nail this religious revolution? That possibility
     could not be ruled out altogether! Muslim opposition to this revolutionary
     change, however, in the imperial government and religion was quite natural.
792. Under these circumstances, Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) refrained
     from any further atrocities or revenge upon the Muslims in Delhi or
     elsewhere in the empire, considering that his religious and political
     revolution in Delhi was in itself so daring as to put the Muslim power to
     shame, and so he was satisfied that the Hindu society had now become
     strong enough to relish and digest such a revolution! And this was not a
     small achievement! The next step could be deferred to a later date! The next
     favourable opportunity would most certainly be availed of. He did not,
     therefore, think it wise to stretch things too far so as to cause a complete
     break.
793. On the other hand, as had already been told (in Paragraph 784), he
     allowed the Muslim soldiers and peasants and civilians equal rights to the
     new facilities and exemption from taxes, which he did in the case of
     Hindus. Moreover, he kept on sending extremely valuable presents to those
     Muslim officers and Mullah-Maulvis, whom he suspected to be secretly

despising this religious revolution of the Hindus and the Hindu Empire, as
often as he sent them to those Muslim officers, who were loyal to him and
with a extremely polite treatment, kept them under his obligation.
794. It is because of this exceptional skill of his at diplomacy that even
after the successful realization of this religio-political revolution of the
Hindus, immediately or for months together thereafter, there was not a
single Muslim revolt—no riots nor brawls—throughout the length and
breadth of his vast empire. His whole administration was working as
smoothly as it did in the days of the old Muslim Sultans. Revenues, taxes or
ransoms were collected from all provinces and remitted to the imperial
treasury at Delhi without any default. In Delhi itself, the greatest of Muslim
knights and feudatory princes, generals and sardars and other courtiers and
officers attended the imperial court on the orders of this Hindu
Dharmarakshak and took their appointed seats. Of the great Muslim
noblemen reported by the historians of the time to be attending the court of
this Hindu emperor, Nasir-ud-din, some may be mentioned here: they were
Ain-ul-Mulk Multani, Yusuf Safi, Hatim Khan, Kamaluddin Sufi, Faruk-did
an-Tughlak, Mulgati, Mohammed Shah, Baharam Anayya, Yuklakhi,
Hoshang, Kaphur Saheb. Because of the presence of these big shots in the
Hindu court of Nasir-ud-din and because of written letters promising
allegiance to the emperor from governors, and administrators and Muslim
officers in the army, peace throughout the whole of India was never broken
for months together.
795. On the other hand, the Hindu kings from Rajputana to Madurai did
not protest, perhaps according to some previous secret pact, against the
revolution effected by this Hindu emperor. Why, availing themselves fully
of this military coup in Delhi, they began to rule the Hindu States
independently as before. Their chief fault was that at this greatest and rarest
of opportunities, they did not make a well-organized effort to proclaim the
independence of the Hindus and establish a united strong central imperial
power at Delhi.
796. Under the circumstances, the shrewd ‘Dharmarakshak’ (Nasir-ud-
din) well knew that although at first his Hindu administration was running
smoothly, his revolutionary Hindu empire depended on no other thing than
his armed might. He, therefore, kept the thousands of his choicest of Hindu
soldiers stationed in the capital in all readiness! At every vital centre of
defence in his empire, he drafted his most faithful Hindu battalions and also

the Muslim troops, which had sworn loyalty towards him. For, he knew
perfectly well that although the Muslims everywhere in his empire obeyed
him implicitly and swore alligance to him, sooner or later some rebellious
faction amongst them was bound to organize itself and stage a counter-
revolution against his pro-Hindu authority!
797. Want of space obliges us to skip over many intervening events.
Suffice it to say that the imperial administration, which nobody could have
expected to work smoothly even for a day, ran most efficiently, not for a
day, nor a month, but for nearly a year, overthrowing the Muslim
domination and turning the very same Muslim ‘Takhta’ (throne) which
means a ‘Sinhasan’ of a Hindu emperor, and replacing the green Muslim
Chand, which had been flaunting almost over the whole of India by the
victorious Hindu flag. Millions of Muslims, rich or poor, liege or serf,
throughout the whole of India, accepted without a murmur the overlordship
(sovereignty) of the Hindu empire. For, at least a year, the great Muslim
governors and officers obeyed implicitly the orders of this Hindu emperor
and made the common Muslim community do likewise. This itself was a
great wonder that glorifies the Hindu history of the times.
798. And another equally great wonder, which condemns the Hindus of
the time and those of later times also, is that in the histories written of the
Hindu people and by the Hindu people no major reference, let alone
grateful reference is made either to this Hindu imperial and religious
revolution and to its architect and engineer Dharmarakshak, (Nasir-ud-din)!
Whatever few words are written about him are full of censure and ridicule
for him and for his acts, in strict pursuance of the Muslim historical
writings!
Ghyasuddin Tughlak
799. But before this year of amazement elapsed, one or two top-ranking
Muslims ventured to hatch a conspiracy to overthrow the yoke of this
Hindu Emperor. Secret provocative pamphlets were being circulated and
bigoted moulavis were already instigating sedition secretly in their masjids,
that it was a grave insult to the whole Muslim world that the Muslim
imperial throne should be turned into a Hindu one, and that the Muslims
should be forced to bow down meekly before a ‘kafir’, and finally, that it
was highly essential for the Muslims to go on a crusade against the Hindu
sovereignty in order to end the utter degradation of Islam. But no Muslim
‘amir’, nor military chief, nor any superior officer offered to lead the

insurrection. Ultimately, the administrator and governor of Punjab under the
Sultan of Delhi, by name Ghyasuddin, aspired to shoulder that
responsibility. He began sending secret emissaries and epistles to that effect
to various higher Muslim authorities under Sultan Nasir-ud-din.
Ghyasuddin himself had sworn allegiance to the Sultan and was appointed
military Governor of Punjab, while one of his sons was an officer at Delhi
itself under the direct control of this ‘Hinduised Sultan’. Ghyasuddin called
this son of his for a private visit under some pretext, and gathered every sort
of minute detail about the situation in Delhi in his private interview with
that son. Whereupon he came to know for certain that after the murder of
Allauddin, his sons and relatives were either killed or deprived of their
eyesight and thus rendered useless. When he was thus satisfied that there
was no proper heir of Allauddin’s for the Sultanate at Delhi, he was all the
more elated to declare boldly, that as there was no proper heir left from the
house of Allauddin’s, it was only some powerful Muslim who could lay
claim to the throne at Delhi. That kafir Hindu Paria was not to be suffered to
touch it even. That kafir had married all the widows of all the earlier sultans
and the young Muslim girls and maidens from the royal palace to the Parias
(sweepers), whom he had formerly raised to eminence, and converted all
those ladies of the Muslim royal families to Hinduism. As no Muslim dared
to dethrone such a sinful Hindu kafir, he himself was going to shoulder the
responsibility.
800. For the first time, these secret letters of his were turned down with
spite by the top Muslim officers, while some others placed them into the
hands of Dharmarakshak Nasir-ud-din himself, who having already
apprehended such an eventuality and undaunted by it, calmly prepared
himself to crush this rising of Ghyasuddin immediately. Good many
Muslim generals, who had acknowledged him as a Sultan, enlisted their
forces in his service while the Hindu section of that imperial army was
always ready to fight at the cost of their lives under his standard.
801. At last, depending chiefly on the Muslim battalions, which were
employed under his command for the protection of Punjab and the frontiers,
Ghyasuddin decided to march upon Delhi. Some Hindu soldiers, too, were
amongst those advancing Muslim forces. No sooner did he hear that
Ghyasuddin was marching towards Delhi than the Hindu Emperor—
Dharmarakshak Nasir-ud-din himself—attacked him with his whole
imperial army. Along with this Hindu Emperor, marched the great Muslim

generals, too, with their battalions to fight under his command. When the
two armies met on the first day, the imperial army of Sultan Nasir-ud-din
won the field, and Ghyasuddin had to retreat. But the latter did not lose
heart. Knowing that depression of heart at this time meant utter ruin, and
that success depended briefly on enterprise and intrepidity, Ghyasuddin
rearranged his ranks and made ready for another battle. Fortunately for
Ghyasuddin, on that very day, one or two Muslim chieftains in the Sultan's
armies conspired to betray the Hindu Emperor Nasir-ud-din and let the
former know of their decision most secretly. Encouraged by this,
Ghyasuddin himself fell upon the forces of Sultan Nasir-ud-din (Hindu
Samrat, Shree Dharmarakshak). In the melee that ensued, the betrayal by
the Muslim forces brought about the utter defeat of Sultan Nasir-ud-din. So
the Sultan—Shree Dharmarakshak—left the field and started for Delhi. But
mad with victory, Ghyasuddin marched straight towards Delhi, and in that
hot pursuit, Shree Dharmarakhak—Sultan Nasir-ud-din-—fell helpless in
the hands of the enemy.
802. When the victor, Ghyasuddin, ordered the captive Sultan, Nasir-ud-
din, to be brought before him and charging him with the murder of Mubarik
and decided to sentence him to death, he asked the captive the last question:
“Setting aside the question of political expediency or the bid for the throne
of the Sultan and considering only the personal aspect of this act of yours,
what personal wrong did Mubarik do to you, that you might seek to avenge
it by his death? To this, the captive Nasir-ud-din (Khushrukhan) replied to
this effect: “Of course! He was guilty of a such personal wrong to me! For
the most heinous crime of inflicting homosexual and other unbearable
atrocities that this mean and vicious Mubarik had perpetrated on my body
ever since my tender age and for the humiliation that he had heaped upon
my life. I had long vowed most solemnly that at the earliest opportunity, I
would avenge all those personal wrongs upon that villain with murder!”
803. Thereupon, Ghyasuddin dispatched him instantaneously.
804. That was the tragic end of Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din). But
the last of the accredited Hindu Emperor of Delhi, the valiant Prithviraj
Chouhan, was also equally tragically murdered by the Muslims after his
utter rout in the last battle!
805. And the dountless Shree Guru Banda of Punjab! After inflicting
several crushing defeats upon the Muslims, when at last he fell into the
hands of the Muslim monarch, was he not locked up in a cage like a wild

beast? Didn’t red-hot iron pikes and pincers pierce his body and pull out
large pieces of his flesh and was he not after so much torture, put to cruel
death by the Muslims?
806. But is any thoroughbread Hindu likely to forget the gratitude that we
all owe to those various Hindu gallant warriors for their glorious martyrdom
in the cause of Hinduism, simply because they were defeated in the end? It
is this grateful memory of such martyrs that becomes the perennial source
of inspiration for the nation for ages after ages!
807. O You! Hindu Samrat ‘Shree Dharmarakshak! This martyrdom of
yours, too, has become a freshwater spring of inspiration for the Hindu
nation! It is to atone for the sin of failing to utter a single grateful word for
you, to preserve some souvenir, some memento of yours, that the Hindus of
your own times or those of the later generations have committed, and it is
again in expiation of the sin of our Hindu ingratitude towards you, that we
have most reverently offered you this separate chapter in this book.
808. Had you but chosen to remain a Muslim Sultan, you could easily
have perpetuated the Sultanate of the whole of India down to your
descendants, generations after generations, as it happened in the case of the
Khiljee or Slave dynasties after Allauddin or Ghyasuddin. But with glowing
respect and pride for the Hindu religion and the Hindu nation, you purified
the very Muslim Title of Sultan, turned the Muslim, ‘Takhta’ into a Hindu
‘Sinhasan’, and slighting the Muslim Sultanate, proclaimed yourself Hindu
Samrat (Emperor)!
809. After Emperor Prithviraj Chauhan, it was you alone who made a
gallant bid to occupy the imperial throne of Delhi as a Hindu Emperor! In
spite of your birth in an humble and miserable Hindu family; in spite of
your being defiled and converted to Islam and made an abject slave by your
Muslim enemies at your tender age, you became the Sultan of Sultans by
the dint of your valour, your versatility, your military exploits, your arch-
diplomacy and your adroitness in engineering deep-laid plots, and made the
whole of India resound with the glory of Hinduism! We have done our duty
to relate with proofs, your (in a way) peculiar life to the Hindu Nation and
the world at large, so far as it is possible for us to do so.
The Peculiar Character of this Hindu Revolution!
810. Although in this millenial Hindu-Muslim war, the Hindu Nation had
been fighting on the political and military fronts more or less on equal
grounds, using effective counter-offensive and tactics and ultimately

overpowering the Muslim sovereignty, it was incessantly overwhelmed on
the religious front, because of their own hateful bans on re-conversion and
the like—fetters, which prevented the Hindus from opening any counter-
offensive on the Muslim religion as such! But, this Hindu Emperor, Shree
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), successfully launched a counter-attack upon
the Muslims, both on political and military as well as on the religious
fronts, using the same means and weapons. To counter-balance the forceful
conversion of the Hindus by the Muslims, Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-
din) brought about hundreds of Muslim reconversions to Hinduism and
their republication ceremonies under the protection of his armed might.
Just as the Muslim used to rush headlong to ravage and convert the Hindu
women to Islam, in the same way, the Hindus broke into the harems of the
Muslim Sultan and converted the willing Mohamedan women to Hinduism
and married them to their Hindu followers. If the Muslims demolished the
Hindu temples, Shree Dharmarakshak, in the excitement of this victory,
turned the very Muslim Masjids into Hindu temples. It was this
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) who, for the first time in Hindu history,
showed so very successfully and on such a large scale, how the Muslim
armed aggression upon Hinduism and the religious persecution that they
perpetrated before and after, could be retaliated and how the Muslims could
be routed completely on the religious front too. If from the beginning, the
Muslims had to face such bold opposition and been forced to suffer such
powerful counterstrokes on the religious front, they would never have dared
to strike, in spite of all their military might at Hinduism. This first blow,
which the Hindus delivered to Islam in Delhi, shook the Muslims so very
severely! And this is the peculiar character of this Hinduistic revolution
brought about by Shree Dharmarakshak (Khushrukhan Nasir-ud-din).
811. We have intentionally called this account of Khushrukhan's life and
achievements as based on proofs! Although, as we have pointed out in
Paragraph 744, nobody barring some honourable exception, has written any
good word about you, O Khushrukhan, the very inconsistent and confused
and oblique reference to you, tell a story which is all the more glorious for
you! As such, although your life and career as painted by us too has so far
not any ‘written’ or ‘oral’ ‘basis’ or any strong proofs, even then there is
another equally strong and unimpeachable legal evidence, which, at times,
sets aside even written or oral ones, in such historical and judicial matters
of daily occurrence. That evidence is called circumstantial evidence!

The Authority of Circumstantial Evidence
812. In the science of logic the authority of circumstantial evidence is
considered, at least in certain cases, to be the better mode of reasoning than
inference, the word of the elders, or illustration. Especially, when the
intentions and feelings or emotions of the engineers of deep-laid political
conspiracies and plots are to be ascertained, circumstantial evidence is
considered to be the only strong basis for it and it should be thought so, and
rightly too! The written confession of the accused under their own signature
can be refuted by the circumstantial evidence of bodily persecution and
torture; so does written evidence!
813. Your life, O Dharmarakshak, therefore, has been based more on the
strictly logical circumstantial evidence than on your own words or the
writings of your contemporary and later day historians, hence it is based on
solid proof. Even if your words are not available, your very act and deeds
are in themselves far more telling.
814. The brother of this Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) was himself
a very great warrior and an able administrator. The original Hindu name of
this brother of Shree Dharmarakshak is also not known as yet, for in his
very early childhood, he too was converted and made a slave. When this
Hindu Emperor appointed him the Governor of Gujarat, he openly accepted
Hinduism and canvassed for it. In order to overthrow the Muslim
government in Gujarat, he raised a Hindu revolt and sent twenty to
twentyfive thousand brave warriors of his parwar (community) to help his
brother at Delhi. What ultimately became of them all is not known to
history. He too deserves place of honour in Hindu history.
815. And on the same basis of this circumstantial evidence, does that
former Hindu royal princess and the Yadav Queen, Devaldevi, who was
equally responsible for bringing about the unprecedented Hindu revolution
of Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) and who was his important
accomplice in the secret plot, and who became, after the successful
accomplishment of the said revolution, the Hindu Empress of Shree
Dharmarakshak, deserves even a greater place of honour, like that of Devi
Padmini of Chitod, for the unimaginable mental agonies that she had to
suffer in the most adverse circumstances! She deserves the honour of a
brave warrior Rajput Princess, burning herself on the pyre or in Johar!
816. Her end, too, is clouded in mystery! One of the writers of the time
has said that she was provided for Ghyasuddin after he became the Sultan

of Delhi.
Not a Fruitless Martyrdom!
817. Thus were the two valiant associates of the Hindu Emperor,
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) forced to court martyrdom! But their
martyrdom lent a wonderful strength to the morale of the Hindu Nation.
For, the fact that in Delhi itself, was established a Hindu Empire, which
could powerfully and effectively govern the Muslim States, Nawabs, and
Muslim populace throughout India for nearly a year, helped the Hindu kings
and the Hindu people to shake off the dominant influence of the Muslim
political superiority, which had for centuries overawed the Hindu mind. The
myth of this Muslim political superiority as at once exploded and a rare
confidence was inspired amongst the Hindus that, were they but to run a
little risk, they would also be able to crush the Muslim political hold on
them. Shree Dharmarakshak courted martyrdom in 1321; it was soon
followed by the risings in Hindu States in the north and south of India. The
Muslim provinces round about Delhi, too, began fighting with the Muslim
imperial power at Delhi in order to establish their own dynasties in their
own provinces. In the end, hardly within fifteen to sixteen years of the
martyrdom of Shree Dharmarakshak, the Muslim imperial authority at
Delhi became extremely weak, and a powerful Hindu revolt culminated in
the establishment of a completely independent Hindu Kingdom of
Vijayanagar, the detailed account of which must necessarily be deferred to
next chapter.
❑

The Beginning of the Final Overthrow of
the Muslim Empire
818. Soon after slaying Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), Ghyasuddin
Tughlak ascended the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in A.D. 1321 and issued
a proclamation to that effect. This was the end of the Khilji dynasty and the
beginning of the Tughlak rule.
819. Ghyasuddin too was old. Naturally, he treated the Muslims leniently.
But although born of a Hindu jat mother, he strangely enough did not fall
short of any type of religious persecution of the Hindus perpetrated by any
or all of the former Muslim Sultans!
820. Ghyasuddin died in A.D. 1326 and was succeeded by his son
Mohammed Tughlak, who has gone down in history as ‘crazy’. He once
had a strange whim of shifting his capital from Delhi to Devgiri in the
south. Immediately, he changed the name of Devgiri, according to the
Muslim tradition, into Doulatabad, just as Warangal had been changed
earlier by the Muslim into Sultanpur. But this change of capital from Delhi
to Devgiri caused him and his subjects so much trouble, disrupted his
already confusion-fraught revenue system so completely, and so many
insurrections and political risings were brewing in the royal families and the
people at large in the Deccan (as already pointed out in the previous
chapter) that this ‘crazy’ Mohammed was ultimately forced to have another
whim of shifting the capital once again back to Delhi. But this short
interlude cost millions (crores) of rupees and thousands of lives.
820A. With a view to getting out of this financial trouble, he introduced
the copper coins, which drained his treasury completely; but he blamed the
farmers and the other gentry for it, saying that they did not pay the taxes.
He, therefore, issued orders to his fighting forces to collect the revenue
under compulsion, but while the Muslims were shown all leniency in the
collection of taxes, the Hindus were most cruelly forced to pay them. Just as
the beasts are surrounded on all sides in a hunting expedition and are held at
bay and then massacred, similarly a number of Hindu towns and villages
were besieged and the Hindu population therein was mercilessly put to the
sword. (This sort of persecution devastated numerous Hindu towns and
villages, while whole province like Kanouj were rendered desolate!)

821. Nevertheless, there darted from the bow of the Hindu nation a Ram-
     ban [an arrow of Ram—an (unerring) unmistakable shot!], which put a stop,
     even if temporarily, to the Ravan-like atrocities by the Muslims perpetrated
     under every Sultan over the Hindus for centuries together!
822. The diabolic Muslim ambition to spread the unitary Muslim empire
     to the ends of Hindusthan (Paragraphs 636-737) received a death blow in
     the very hour of its fruition. For (as it is shown in the previous chapter) with
     the first vigorous blow struck by the Hindu Emperor, Shree Dharmarakshak,
     the extensive Muslim Empire had already begun to dwindle, while the
     Hindu discontent, especially in the Deccan, culminated into a powerful
     insurrection, which shattered the already dwindling Muslim empire into
     small fragments.
     New Hindu State
823. For, in A.D. 1336, was established the new, independent, and
     powerful Hindu State of Vijaynagar, defying the Muslim might in the very
     lifetime of this ‘crazy’ Mohammad Tughlak, a detailed account of which
     will be given in the next chapter.
824. Immediately after this momentous event, the Deccanese Muslims
     under Hasan Bahamani rose in rebellion against the Delhi Sultanate
     following the age-old separatist tendency of the Muslims, which had been
     exhibited in their fratricidal wars ever since the times of Mohammad
     Paigambar. Hasan Bahamani was crowned with success in this attempt, and
     so he founded the Bahamani kingdom in A.D. 1347 and proclaimed himself
     to be an independent Sultan.
825. This act of Hasan Bahamani will explode the popular misconception
     of the millions of credulous gulls amongst the Hindus, that the Muslims
     always showed a united front in their political as well as religious wars, that
     they never fought amongst themselves and that they had no separatist
     tendencies—a baseless misconception, which is not only foolish in the
     extreme but which falsely extols the foreigners and undeservedly runs down
     our own Hindu community. A number of such instances have already been
     cited in this volume and many more will occur in the pages that follow. The
     history of the Muslim community all over world is replete with such
     instances.
     A Grievous fall and Breaking of the Dream of an Unbroken Muslim
     Empire

826. Just as perhaps some adventurous mountaineer should, in the
     excitement of his almost impracticable ambition to scale the highest peak of
     the Himalayas and to hoist his national flag there before anybody else does
     it, climb on and on, and after reaching some altogether different peak
     should victoriously cry out, ‘This is the very same highest peak!’ when all
     at once, the seemingly highest peak should give way under the heavy load
     of his ambition, being made as it really is, not of any solid rock, but of a
     frozen heap of snowflakes, and the ambitious climber should topple down
     and fall headlong from crag to crag into the deep ravine of destruction along
     with the bits and fragments of his signal victory—in the very same way, the
     Muslim ambition to establish the centralized paramount Muslim power over
     the whole of India was beguiled for a while, and ultimately came to naught.
     All the Asian Muslim States right from the Arabs to the Mongols invaded
     India one after another and carried on for seven or eight centuries
     continuously the bitterest, bloodiest and cruellest wars and at last, when in
     the regime of Allauddin, practically the whole of India passed under the
     Muslim sway round about the year A.D. 1310, the Muslim ambition seemed
     to be almost fulfilled! But, as it is already told, with a hard knock from the
     resurgent Hindu valour, the Muslim rule collapsed from the highest peak of
     success attained by Sultan Allauddin and was shattered to pieces within
     only seven or eight years, never to rise to that giddy height again! The
     Hindu might went on increasing like the crescent moon!
     Death of ‘Crazy’ Mohammad and after
827. This ‘crazy’ Sultan Mohammad died in A.D. 1351 and his tottering
     crown with the disintegrating Sultanate of Delhi passed on to his cousin
     ‘Pherozshah Tughlak’. This Pherozshah’s mother was the daughter of the
     Rajput King Malbhatti of Deepalpur. When Pherozshah’s father demanded
     her (that Rajput Princess) in marriage, King Malbhatti flatly refused to give
     her up, whereupon Pherozshah’s father marched on Malbhatti and began to
     persecute the Hindus most cruelly. The princess could not bear the inhuman
     sufferings of her father and her Hindu brethren in the kingdom. So, she
     volunteered to marry Pherozshah’s father. However praiseworthy the
     tenderness of her heart might be, it has permanently stained her father’s
     family. Had she swallowed fire like some Padmini of Chitod and followed
     the path of martyrdom for the sake of religion, her life and her family
     tradition would both have been for ever glorified!
     The Superstitious Muslims!

828. An anecdote of this time of the Tughlaks, which is recorded in
     history, may be related here so that the reader might have some idea of the
     extent the superstitious nature of the Muslims could go to, and of the
     influence the religious credulity and fanaticism of the Arabs invariably had
     over the Muslims of later days, ever since the inception of Muslim religion.
     828A. In order to atone for the crazy religious acts and the harassment of
     the subjects by the ‘mad’ Mohammad (setting aside the religious
     persecution of Hindus, which was deemed harmonious with the tenets of
     the Muslim religion), Sultan Pherozshah interned with the bones of the late
     ‘mad’ Mohammad, the original papers regarding the reimbursement of the
     unjust land revenue collected by him, refund of fines and compensation for
     the other unjust acts of his, or their governmental acknowledgments along
     with other original papers signed by Mohammed himself. This action of
     Pherozshah was perhaps prompted by his credulous belief, that on the
     strength of this written record of the compensation for all his crimes, the
     great Allah would forgive Mohammad on the last day of the judgment!
     And, be it remembered that Pherozshah was well-educated, according to the
     standards of the time! What to say, then, of the common people!
829. Although in the beginning, Pherozshah proclaimed himself as the
     Sultan of Hindusthan, everywhere in India, with the only exception of Delhi
     and a small region around it, the Hindus and the Muslims began one after
     another to repudiate his imperial authority. In the South, the celebrated
     kingdom of Vijaynagar had openly asserted its freedom. Under these
     circumstances, Pherozshah Tughlakh decided finally to acknowledge the
     independence of the recalcitrant people under him in order to assuage their
     political bitterness, and to consolidate whatever little he could retain rather
     than lose all. He, therefore, gave an official recognition to the independence
     of the Bahamani Kingdom in the south and to that of the valiant Hindu
     Kingdom of Vijaynagar, which was founded by the great Hindu leaders,
     who were fired with the bitterest hatred for the Muslim domination and
     were bent on driving it away right out of India.
830. Thus was the Muslim imperial power, which had reached its zenith
     round about the years A.D. 1310-12 in Allauddin’s times as a result of the
     incessant Hindu-Muslim wars for about six or seven centuries, and which
     had spread over almost the whole of India, dissolved by the very descendant
     of the same illustrious Sultan, for he could not help yielding to the powerful
     Hindu resistance. The Muslim empire over the whole of India was

completely shattered in the hour of its fruition, never to be rebuilt on such a
vast scale. Now the Hindu resurgent independent power had begun its
inroads on the Muslim might, which were never to cease again!
831. In fact, the moment Pherozshah Tughlak recognized the political
independence of the South, the Muslim imperial power came to an end! He,
as it were, rang the death knell of the Muslim ambition of an imperial
power!
The Direct Evidence
832. This explicit recognition of the political independence of the Deccan,
including that of the newly established Hindu state of Vijaynagar by the
Sultan of Delhi, Pherozshah Tughlak himself, conclusively proves the
statement that we have made in paragraphs 807 to 817 and that has so far
escaped the notice of the writers of Hindu history. It is the two-fold
politico-religious aggression of the Hindu Emperor, Shree Dharmarakshak,
(Nasir-ud-din) in Delhi itself on the Muslim power, and especially his
frightful revenge of the religious persecution of the Hindus over the
Muslims in much the same horrid way, and the terror it struck in the minds
of the Muslims, which inspired this political rising of Vijaynagar, which in
its turn dashed to pieces the Muslim ambition of an all-India empire!
833. Although Sultan Pherozshah helplessly surrendered his overlordship
over the Deccan, he still mercilessly continued to persecute the Hindus in
the big cities like Delhi under his direct control. The Hindus, too, persisted
in their staunch resistance in the defence of their religion, even at the risk of
martyrdom. Numerous instances of the varied kinds of this Hindu reaction
to the Muslim atrocities are recorded, one of which might be given here on
the authority of the Muslim writers themselves.
833A. Sultan Pherozshah hated the Brahmins far more bitterly than the
other Hindus. He said, “Brahmins are the veritable keys to the strong
fortress of the Hindu religion.” It is the Brahmins who organised a resistance
movement against the Jizia tax, freshly imposed on the Hindus by Sultan
Pherozshah. They organized collective hunger strike before the royal palace
and announced their determination to swallow fire and court martyrdom.
But the Sultan heeded it not. So, many Brahmins, no longer able to bear the
humiliation, died in that horrible manner. In the end, the Hindus of other
castes paid up the tax for such staunch defenders of their religion that still
survived and saved their lives!

834. But the account of one of those Brahmins is the most remarkable for
     his martyrdom. In the city of Delhi itself, this old Brahmin openly
     worshipped an idol. Now the diabolic religion of Sultan Pherozshah
     Tughlak had absolutely banned any such idol-worship throughout his
     kingdom. But in order to protest against this ban, that Brahmin collected all
     the Hindus in the courtyard of his house and worshipped the idol with such
     great pomp that many Muslim men, women and children, too, became the
     devotees of that idol. The rumour quickly spread far and wide that this
     Brahmin’s God always came to the rescue of his devotee. The news that this
     Brahmin openly worshipped idols painted on a wooden plank reached the
     ears of the Sultan, who immediately had him brought as a captive, along
     with his idol, before him. Thereupon, he called all the ulemas (the Muslim
     religious priests) and asked them: “What punishment should be inflicted on
     this Brahmin?” They replied: “This Brahmin should either be a Muslim or
     be burnt alive to death.” The Brahmin, thereupon, chose to die that horrible
     death by burning. In Delhi, just before the king’s court, a big pile of wood
     was made and the Brahmin was placed on it, bound hand and foot, with the
     idol painted on the wooden plank. The Muslim demons set fire to that pile
     of wood from all sides. Still, the Brahmin would not consent to be
     converted to Islam. In a few cruel moments, the fire blazed very hot on all
     sides. But without even a faint sigh of pain or grief, the Brahmin remained
     bowing down to the idol. Within a moment, the hungry flames swallowed
     up the devoted Brahmin!
835. This arch-enemy of the Hindus, Sultan Pherozshah Tughlak, died in
     A.D. 1388, followed by an utter chaos in the meagre remains of his
     kingdom, whereas on one occasion, two of his grandsons fell out and at the
     two ends of the city of Delhi, there ruled two Sultans at one and the same
     time, Mohammadshah and Nasratshah, the two grandsons of Pheroz. Half
     the city of Delhi became the capital of the one, while the other half, that of
     the other!!
     Invasion by Taimurlang
836. Under these chaotic conditions, Delhi fell a prey to the inhuman
     ravages of the notorious Taimurlang, the Sultan of the far off Samarkand.
837. Taimur was a Turk, and not originally a Muslim. After conquering
     the city of Baghdad, he burned to ashes the whole library of literature and at
     many places, he even burned Masjids! In A.D. 1369, he became the King of
     Samarkand. Following the lead of Chengeezkhan before him, he had

conquered not less than twenty-seven crowns from Russia in the West to
Afghanistan in the South-East! Because he had lost a leg in one of the
battles, he received the nickname ‘lang’ (lame). Thereafter, he happened to
cast his eyes on India, not simply because of any allurement of political
power or the lust for victory, but because he had formed a bitter hatred
towards India. For, he had in the meantime become a Muslim. His original
destructive tendencies now received this new ghastly impetus! Says he in
his autobiography: “My intention in marching upon India is to massacre the
Kafir Hindus there, destroy the idols of their Gods, convert them all to
Islam and thus win the title of a ‘Gazi’ in the court of the Allah.”
838. So, immediately in A.D. 1397, he invaded India. He had under him a
gigantic force of ninety thousand strong. He marched straight up to Punjab.
Still nobody came forward to oppose him. He, therefore, swooped down
straight on Delhi, where a small force came to oppose him in the name of
the Sultan of Delhi, but it was soon put to rout. An interesting point to note
is that this veteran army of Taimurlang, which had trampled over half the
world, was scared to death for a time by the mere sight of elephants in this
ludicrous army of the Sultan of Delhi, for they had seen such huge beasts
for the first time in their lives. Yet it got over the fear very soon and as soon
as the Sultan’s forces were completely routed, it dashed violently into the
city of Delhi, letting loose the orgy of wholesale massacre, plunder and
arson. Millions of lives were lost this day. After having thus quenched his
thirst for Hindu blood to some extent, Taimur turned further to Meerut and
Haridwar, smashing to pieces Hindu idols at many places on his way. At
Haridwar, he reached the pinnacle of his cruelty in the Hindu bloodbath.
How many instances is one to quote of the harrowing atrocities which the
Hindu community had to suffer simply because of their dire determination
and holy resolve not to forsake their religion! From Haridwar, this fiendlike
Taimur went further to the north, raining Hindu blood on the Shivalik hills,
Nagarcote, Jammu and demolishing Hindu temples on the way. On his way,
he got the news of his native capital of Samarkand being threatened by the
rebels. So, mad with fury and mental anguish, he hurried straight off to
Samarkand with the whole of his army.
839. In this Taimurlangian deluge was washed off the little that was left of
the Tughlak Sultanate. In the chaotic conditions that then prevailed in north
India, the Sayyads usurped the nominal Sultanate of the Tughlaks.

840. Availing themselves of this miserable condition of the Muslim power
     at Delhi, the veteran defenders of the Hindu religion, the independent
     Rajput kings, went on setting free the territories formerly conquered by the
     Muslims.
     For that matter, the holy places of the Hindus like Kashi, Prayag and
     others hand, even before this time, been reconquered from the Muslims.
     But!—Although the political power there was defeated and uprooted, their
     colonies and their religious centres like their Masjids and mosques were not
     destroyed—as did the Muslims, whenever they conquered the Hindu
     territories, slaughtering the Hindus irrespective of their age or sex and
     pulling down the Hindu holy places of worship, so as to make mere
     existence impossible for them. But because the Hindus did not emulate the
     Muslims in this respect, these local Muslims, who were left alive and
     unmolested, turned traitors, like serpents fed and fostered as pets, and
     invited again and again the Muslim aggressors for help and made life
     miserable for the Hindus in those holy places and cities. But the Rajput
     malady of the suicidal generosity even now persisted without any
     moderation. (The reader is referred to the detailed discussion in this regard
     in Paragraphs 421 to 426).
     Rana Kumbha
841. Most notable among the Rajput heroes of the time was Rana
     Kumbha, who excelled not only the great leaders of Chitod but even those
     of Hindusthan in respect of valour and success. He went to war with a
     powerful neigbhouring Muslim Sultan, Mohammad Khilji of Malwa, who
     had become independent by renouncing the overlordship (paramountcy) of
     the Sultan of Delhi, and in a battle near Sultanpur, vanquished the latter
     completely. Sultan Mohammad Khilji of Malwa was at last caught alive by
     Rana Kumbha. But grossly affected as he was by the age-old malady of the
     perverted sense of virtues, as the other Hindu heroes before him were, he
     allowed the Sultan to go free, considering it a noble act on his own part.
     Had but Rana Kumbha been taken captive by the Muslim Sultan,
     Mohammad Khilji, he would very likely have been deprived of his eyesight,
     as Prithviraj was, and brutally murdered according to the diabolic war-
     ethics of the Muslims. In fact, this diabolic war-ethics is the only one that is
     beneficial to a nation in such fiendish wars and hence is highly pious and
     thoroughly sound!