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

Hindu Vikramaditya, Hemoo
933. The many Rajput and Muslim states, which had collected together
under the leadership of Rana Sang, and who had aspired to re-establish the
Hindu empire had joined battle with Babar at Kanvah. But after fierce
fighting, Rana Sang was finally defeated and Babar laid the foundation of
the Moghal empire at Delhi. Soon in 1530, Babar died and was succeeded
by his son, Humayun, who in his turn was overcome by Sher Shah, the
founder of the Sur dynasty. As Sher Shah Sur captured Delhi, Humayun had
to wander in exile through various countries such as Kabul, Kandahar,
Persia and others, of which we need not give any detailed account. It is
enough to say that even in the royal dynasty of Sultan Sher Shah, the
upheavals, usual and inevitable in every Muslim regime, took place and
after violent rebellions and bloodshed, Mohammed Adilshah was at last
installed as the Emperor.
934. This Mohammed Adilshah had enturested his administration to an
able Hindu Vazir named Hemoo. Hemoo, too, without ever endangering his
Hindu religion in the least, appropriated the de facto power of the Sultan to
himself and ruled his dominions efficiently.
935. But this roused the jealousy and anger of other Muslim sirdars. In the
meanwhile in 1542, while he was yet in exile, Humayun had a son, named
Akbar, who was later on destined to be a great emperor. With the help of the
Shah of Iran (Persia), Humayun invaded India and burning the eyes of his
faithless brother, and inflicting exemplary punishments on other enemies,
he reconquered Delhi. But soon after his regaining the throne of Delhi, he
slipped over the marble staircase of his palace and died in 1556, giving rise
to anarchy everywhere. The last emperor of the Sur dynasty, Mohammed
Shah Adil, who was defeated by Humayun, had fled to the north-west
frontier. But his able minister, Hemoo, however, lingered on in Delhi itself,
trying to avail himself of that opportunity.
936. A very scanty reference has been made in the Muslim historical
writings about the past or future life of Hemoo, the valiant Hindu leader. A
Hindu historian was an impossibility at that time and whoever tried his
hand later on at writing history has not said anything independently about
Hemoo. But we have already shown in Chapter Seventeen about Hindu
Emperor Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), that his actual heroic deed is far
more important and reliable a proof than any written record. Similarly, we

shall try to give here the account of the Hindu Hero, Hemoo, as far as we
can do so with the same unassailable logic.
937. It is to be noted that even while he aspired to form a Hindu Empire,
he received help from many Afghan sirdars, who had fallen foul of the
Moghal Muslims and especially of the Babar faction.
938. It is obvious that the life and career of the earlier Hindu Emperor,
Shree Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din), must have served as an ideal to be
followed before Hemoo as regards the original inspiration to found a Hindu
empire and the formation of a detailed scheme of his war of independence
was concerned. An undying fire of freedom which sought to overthrow the
Muslim rule and found a Hindu Empire in its stead had once inspired Shree
Dharmarakshak (Nasir-ud-din) to bring about a glorious yet unsuccessful
military coup, spurred Rana Sang and other Rajput warriors to cross
swords, although not successfully, with Babar at Kanvah and at hundreds of
places earlier and later, had stimulated millions of Hindu men and women
to undergo all extremities of fortunes, to fight horrible battles or to
immolate their lives to save their religion. The same blazing fire of freedom
glowed clear and bright in the Hindu heart of Hemoo, the ambitious Hindu
leader.
938A. As has been said above, he secretly prepared for a decisive battle,
organized the Muslim dissentients against the Moghals and the Hindu army
marched against Delhi. All the Hindu-Muslim officers at Delhi had served
under him when he was the Chief Minister (Vazir). There, other politicians
and the Hindus in general, offered him no opposition worth the name,
surrendering to his once dreaded influence as a Vazir. His conquest of
Delhi, the chief capital of Moghal empire, caused a great commotion
everywhere.
939. Hemoo was born a staunch Hindu. During the Sultan’s regime, he
rose to political eminence by sheer dint of his merit without the slightest
slur on his Hindu individuality. In the end, assuming responsibility as the
weak Sultan’s Vazir, he began to control the whole imperial administration
and consolidate power into his own hands. And now he had openly hoisted
the standard of Hinduism, boosted up a Hindu imperial power trampling
down the whole of the Muslim Sultanate! Quite naturally, the whole of the
Muslim world was rocked to the bottom with the cry that Islam was
doomed and that kafirs flourished!

940. Immediately after capturing Delhi, he publicly ascended the imperial
     throne as a Hindu emperor with all the adequate pomp and glory and
     assumed the title of Vikramaditya for himself. Then after stabilizing and
     introducing efficient management of the affairs of his state, he started new
     conquests. Formerly as the Sultan’s Vazir, he had won fifteen to sixteen
     battles, crushing down the revolts of the Muslim and other chieftains. As
     such, he had a great self-confidence in his abilities, as regards the efficient
     conduct of war was concerned. At the first stroke, he stormed and seized the
     second great Moghal fort of Agra, which was considered to be impregnable
     and the city around it.
941. At this time, the future emperor Akbar was a mere lad of thirteen or
     fourteen years. His Vazir, Bahiramkhan, was his guardian and the de facto
     head of his administration. On hearing the news of Hemoo, he at once
     resolved to crush down this bold rising of the Hindus. But right from
     Rajputana to the Deccan, numerous Hindu-Muslim states, both big and
     small, had risen in revolt against this newly-formed Moghal empire. Hence,
     the other Muslim sirdars advised Bahiramkhan to put these down first and
     to keep young Akbar at Kabul in safety. But the discreet Bahiramkhan
     firmly asserted that Hemoo’s rising in the name of a Hindu empire had to be
     put down firmly. Accordingly, Bahiramkhan marched on Hemoo at the head
     of a powerful army, and instead of sending young Akbar to Kabul, he took
     him along to the battlefield. The armies of Bahiramkhan and Hemoo met
     near Panipat. Vikramaditya Hemoo’s warriors fought with exceptional
     bravery and skill. It seemed for a time that Hemoo had won the battle, but
     as ill-luck would have it, in the very hour of glory, Vikramaditya Hemoo
     was struck in the eye by a stray arrow from the army of Bahiramkhan and
     he fell from his elephant unconscious! This created a havoc in the Hindu
     ranks of Hemoo, while the Muslim soldiers in Bahiramkhan’s army, being
     quite mercenary were in a way let loose. With a determined attack,
     Bahiramkhan made this confusion worse confounded and vanquishing the
     leaderless Hindu army, captured Hemoo alive. Taking him to young
     emperor Akbar, Bahiramhan requested the latter to behead Hemoo with his
     own royal hands. But young Akbar could not bring himself up to do such a
     cruel deed. So the enraged Bahiramkhan himself unsheathed his sword and
     cut off Hemoo’s head.
942. This martyrdom that Vikramaditya Hemoo courted was as obviously
     (manifestly) done in the cause of Hindu religion, and the greater glory of the

Hindu nation and Hindu welfare as any other. The Hindu nation must always
bow down its head in all reverence to this hero, who unfortunately is not so
remembered amongst the very few so-called martyrs and warriors in the
Hindu world. Well be it so! But even if the millions of these self-deceived
and ungrateful Hindus have forgotten him, the Hindu nation as a whole must
always remember that the undying Hindu aspiration to free itself, which was
kept continually ablaze through a succession of generations and over
centuries together and which ultimately rent to pieces the Muslim imperial
power, planting on its dead remains the glorious banner of an India-wide
Hindu empire, was fed on the now forgotten martyrdom, and the sacrificial
offerings of their lives on the altar of war, of the numerous brave heroes like
Hemoo, who were दिल्लींद्र पदलिप्सव (ambitious of being the lords of
Delhi).
943. Here itself, may we offer our reverential tributes to the glorious
memory of Vikramaditya Hemoo, the great, and proceed futher!
The Valiant Queen Durgawati
944. Bahiramkhan, thereafter, took Akbar straight to Delhi, later they two
together reduced all the rebels up to Gwalior (Gwalher). But they soon fell
out and Akbar assumed supreme authority, whereupon Bahiramkhan
rebelled, but was defeated. Even then, Akbar did not kill him outright, but
sent him away to Makka. Bahiramkhan, however, fell a prey to a revengeful
enemy of his of the earlier days.
945. In A.D. 1564, the independent Rajput King in Gondwana, named Veer
Narayan, was attacked by Akbar. King Veer Narayan was a minor. Yet his
mother, the dowager Qeeen Durgawati, decided not to surrender but to fight
the well-equipped imperial army of Akbar, and offered such a tough
resistance that for a while, the invaders were astounded. She bravely
defended the cause of Hinduism till she was overwhelmed by the vastly
superior numbers of the Muslim emperor. But did she sue for peace and lay
down arms? Did she ask for the imperial clemency as for a powerless
woman? Or, did she send a ‘Rakhi’ to Akbar and abjectly request him to treat
her as a sister and show mercy to her as did some other Rajput ladies, off and
on? No, not at all! Knowing full well from hundreds of such cases how these
Muslim wolves ill-treated and molested the royal Hindu ladies, who fell
captives in their hands, Rani Durgawati staunchly refused to do anything of
the kind. She, on the contrary, offered her body, along with many other ladies
of the court, to the ‘sacred’ fire of the battle. She left strict orders to her

attendant to burn her dead body and not to let the Muslim infidels touch it.
Even after her death, Raja Veer Narayan continued to fight with the Muslims,
but his resistance was put down by the vastly superior Muslim forces and in
A.D. 1562, his small state of Gondwana was annexed to the Moghal empire.
946. Akbar then began to entice the softer ones of the Rajput rulers, who
had been disgusted with incessant warfare with the Muslims over
generations, together with very alluring promises of honourable and
friendly treatment to the Hindus. But on seeing that, even when these docile
Rajput rulers were prone to accept Akbar’s terms, they often hesitated and
fought shy of doing so in the face of the high sense of honour and pride in
their religious and racial purity, which made the belligerent Rana of Chitod
staunchly turn down all overtures of peace from the Moghal Emperor.
Akbar decided to subdue the fort of Chitod first and accordingly, laid siege
to it in A.D. 1567. The Rana of Chitod at that time was Uday Singh, who
had not even a small percentage of the dauntless valour of his celebrated
father, Rana Sang, who had earlier fought with Babar. But the one courtesan
who was at that time wielding real power in Chitod inspired the Rajputs to
extraordinary valour. Even when Uday Singh fled away to the forest, the
great feudatory lords of Chitod like Jaymalla, Patta and others continued to
fight with the Moghals. Later, when Jaymalla and Patta were killed on the
battlefield and defeat was absolutely certain, the Rajput Hindus of Chitod,
instead of becoming dispirited and disheartened, were touched to the quick
and infuriated to the extreme. All the soldiers desperately entered the
battlefield and with the war-cry ‘Har, Har Mahadev’ heaped up mounds of
the massacred Muslim warriors. But ultimately, when the Rajputs
themselves were almost killed in the battle, all the Rajput ladies of Chitod
set ablaze the big fire, which was kept ready for the purpose and leapt
therein from the ramparts of the fort, according to their age-long glorious
tradition, with small children at their breasts and the acclamations in praise
of their religion on their lips. These brave ladies reduced themselves to
ashes but did not allow the hateful Muslim-touch to defile their pure bodies!
This was the third great self-immolation by the ladies of Chitod.
947. It was the same heartless Akbar who caused such a great havoc
amongst the Hindus, but whom the spineless Hindu historians of today call
the most liberal of monarchs; the one, they say, who yearned to bring about
amity between, and unity of, the Hindus and the Muslims; the one, in their
opinion, who treated the Hindus far more honourably than any Muslim

ruler, before or after him; who was according to them a veritable Raja
Ramchandra amongst the Muslims!
948. But let it also be remembered that, as if not content with this blood-
curdling sacrifice of men, women and children of Chitod, Akbar entered the
blood-stained city of Chitod, put to sword every one of the bewailing Hindu
citizens that remained there—and mark well—he made no exception for the
Hindu women. Thirty thousand Hindus lost their lives in this one battle of
Chitod. Eventually, it seems the stones and other inanimate objects of
Chitod appeared to him as deadly enemies of the Muslims as the Hindus
there, and hence this devilish destroyer Akbar went on pulling down the
Hindu temples, prayer halls, palaces, houses—everything that came his
way, and reduced them all to heaps of rubble and ashes. The temple of the
presiding Goddess of Chitod, likewise, was razed to the ground, the idol of
the Goddess and all the courtyard being completely destroyed. The beating
drums, the fifes, the lamps, jewellery and ornaments, door frames and every
sort of valuable or grand articles of Hindu interest were sent away to Agra.
Only after quenching his fiendish fanaticism a little with such an inhuman
destruction of the Hindu capital of Chitod, did this Muslim Emperor Akbar
return to Delhi, calling himself ‘Gazi’ for this virtuous and pious act of his.
949. On the other hand, Uday Singh, who had been wandering in the
forest for four years, unable to avenge the brutal destruction of his kingdom
and the capital city of Chitod, died of grief in A.D. 1572.
Rana Pratap Singh, the jewel among the Hindus
950. Uday Singh’s son, Rana Pratap Singh, immediately ascended the
non-existent, imaginary throne of Chitod! But, as he was offered the truly
great throne in the hearts of all the staunch Rajputs and as he was
considered the very emblem of their invincible courage and valour, this
Rana Pratap Singh shone with more dazzling glory than many enthroned
kings. He turned out to be the one such Rajput Rana, who would never,
under any odds—even at the peril of his life—leave the traditional high
sense of honour of the Rajputs. Instead of seeking the humiliating
friendship with Akbar and the moments of peace and ease that it would
have offered, he preferred to be the direst enemy of the most powerful of
Muslim Emperors, regardless of untold miseries and calamities that such an
enmity devolved on him. He considered it to be the hallmark of true
Hinduism and true Hindu kingship to do so?

951. As Chitod was in the hands of the Muslims, he kept his capital
     moving with him through villages and towns, in those perilous times, and
     gradually rescued a large portion of his lost kingdom. He also formed a
     staunch army of desperate but devoted followers, who held their lives at
     naught. It is a pity that we cannot describe his thrilling exploits and pitched
     battles here, for want of space.
952. In the end, his influence grew so powerful and so widespread, that
     Akbar himself had to send his imperial army to subdue him. Shameful as it
     is, Raja Mansingh of Jaipur, who had surrendered himself to Akbar and the
     Rajput convert Mahabat Khan, committed an unpatriotic act of joining
     Prince Salim's army, marching against Rana Pratap at the Emperor's orders.
     And at this time, it was that the celebrated battle of Haldighat was fought.
     In the heat of fighting, Rana Pratap rode his horse straight at the elephant of
     Prince Salim and that unrivalled horse, Chetak, without the slightest
     hesitation, made straight at the trunk of the Prince's elephant and planted
     his front feet on it. With lightning speed, Rana Pratap's spear whizzed past
     Prince Salim's throat so dreadfully as to stun the latter for a moment. But
     seeing that his dart missed the mark, Rana Pratap retreated with equal speed
     and got mixed up with the army the very next moment, and was not to be
     singled out.
953. Soon he retreated from this undecided battle with thousands of
     daredevils for his faithful followers, who were sworn to his cause and
     captivated by his valour and carried the swift guerrilla warfare throughout
     Mewad, destroying the Muslims and freeing the whole of Mewad except for
     the capital city of Chitod. In the end, Rana Pratap stabilized his moving
     capital at Udepur, which never till the end, fell to Akbar. The latter dropped
     peace-feelers, but Rana Pratap never paid any heed to them. His regime is so
     replete with chivalrous and romantic adventures, deeds of exceptional valour
     done by common folks, as those by the great warriors and the Rana himself,
     that our young generation should delve deep into them and learn them by
     rote as reverentially as they would, the stories from the Ramayan and the
     Mahabharat. Fortunately, the romantic Rasos of Rajput Bhats up to the date
     of the great poet Bhooshan, are still available, which should really be
     appointed in the secondary schools as compulsory textbooks. But alas! in this
     critical historical survey of ours, there is no place for citing any passages
     from them.

954-955. Nor now in the fading light of my last days, is any time left for
them!
This Rana Pratap Singh, a great ornament to the Hindu society, died in
A.D. 1581.
The rise of the Sikhs in Punjab—a new awakening of the Hindu might
956. A saintly person, by name Guru Nanak, started a new religious sect
in Punjab by the end of the fifteenth century, the followers of which soon
organized themselves into a homogeneous group calling themselves Shikh
[Sikh— शिष्य—The disciples of Guru Nanak] Shree Guru Nanak was not
a sanyasi—a recluse—but a man with a family to bring up. He preached
that the worship of God and the service of humanity was possible through
devotion. “Every man can follow this path of devotion!”, he asserted.
956A. At that time not only in Punjab but throughout the whole of India, the
Muslims had waged a total war against Hinduism and resounded the whole
country with the clash of swords, the twang of arrows and the beat of drums.
But throughout the whole of India, Hindu rulers and the Hindu populace had
been bravely resisting the Muslim aggression on every battlefield. Allauddin’s
almost completed India-wide conquest and the consequent Muslim empire,
was precipitately broken into numerous fragments and free and strong Hindu
States like the Vijaynagar empire had already been established. In Rajputana
and Gondwana, too, the Hindu Kings with their daring armies had frequently
worsted the Muslim forces!
957. But in Punjab alone, there was left no Hindu strong enough to
challenge the Muslim government. At such a dark hour SHREE GURU
NANAK began to preach in the Punjab that from the point of view of God,
both the Hindus and the Muslims were the same. Both the communities
could attain bliss through his path of devotion. Both the communities were
one common fraternity. In his sect, he said, he did not recognize any
distinction between the two. Yet with all his preaching of this common
accord, very few Muslims could be found amongst his disciples. All the
others were Hindus. Shree Guru Nanak himself was a Khatri. He died in
A.D. 1538. Although he had sons of his own, they did not follow his tenets.
So, he installed his disciple Angad as the chief priest after himself. This sect
of Shree Guru Nanak, however, was at least up to his death, nothing more
than a mere devotional group, a singing choir of devotional songs and
mattered very little politically. Still, his grief at the miserable plight of the
Hindus, found echoes in some of his writings. For example:

958. क्षत्रियां ही धरम छोड़ियां, मलेच्छ भाषा गही।
     सृष्टि सब इकबरन हुई, धरम की गति रही॥
     नील बरन के कपड़े पहने, तुरक पठानी अमल भया॥
     The Kshatriyas have left their religious duties (of protecting the land), as
     the Muslims have flourished. The whole universe has taken on itself one
     colour, and religion is in danger; people have begun to wear blue garments
     and so the Turks and Pathans have become rulers.
959. Many other similar lines ascribed to him have been very popular.
     Like all other Hindu saints, he also has condemned many blind superstitions
     and foolish customs.
960. After Guru Angad, the third was Guru Amardas (A.D. 1574) and the
     fourth Guru was Ramdas. It is said he had an interview with Akbar, and the
     emperor is said to have bequeathed a large tract of land to him. On the same
     land, Guru Ramdas dug out a beautiful lake and built a temple on its bank,
     which is now known as ‘Amritsar’. Guru Ramdas died in A.D. 1581. The
     fifth Guru was Arjundev, in whose times Sikhism grew rapidly, for they
     now had a central rendezvous at Amritsar. Moreover, the growing need of a
     religious text for this growing sect was satisfied by him by collecting
     whatever sayings of Guru Nanak he could get hold of along with those of
     other contemporary saints, and thereby creating an authorized religious
     book for the Sikhs! This very authorized religious textbook was called by
     him ‘Gurugranth’ or ‘Adigranth’. In it are to be found the sayings of Kabir
     as also those of the Maharashtrian saint, Namdev. While the Maharashtrian
     saint, Namdev, was on a pilgrimage of Punjab, his teaching of the path of
     devotion (भक्ति मार्ग) and his ‘Abhangs’ (hymns) had a widespread
     influence there. The striking similarity between his teachings and those of
     Guru Nanak prompted the inclusion of some of Sant Namdev’s Marathi
     poems in this ‘Gurugranth’. This ‘Gurugranth’ is in Prakrut, which is now
     called in Punjab as Punjabi. It was not written in the Devnagri script, which
     was then called ‘Shastri Lipi’, as it was mostly employed by the learned
     ‘Pandits’ for writing about scientific topics. Just as for ordinary day-to-day
     affairs, ‘Modi’ script was employed in Maharashtra till very recently,
     similarly in Punjab at that time in general correspondence of the common
     people, a Prakrut script was employed and it served for this ‘Adigranth’.
     The script was commonly called ‘Lundimundi’. But after the ‘Gurugranth’

had been written in it, the Sikhs began to call it Gurumukhi, as it was
adopted by their Gurus!
961. When Jahangir became the emperor, his eldest son, Khushru, rebelled
against him, and fled to Punjab. As the Sikh Guru Arjundev gave him
shelter, the enraged Jahangir captured the Sikh Guru and slew him. In the
Sikh history, Guru Arjun was the first heroic martyr who laid down his life
while fighting with the Muslims in the cause of his religion. In the days of
this very Arjundev, a separate organization was set afoot and a tradition of
compulsory religious tax to be paid to the Guru by every Sikh was
established, and in order that Sikh sect might grow powerful, a military
front was also initiated.
962. The violent death of Guru Arjun secretly rankled in the hearts of the
Sikhs, giving rise to inveterate hatred for the Muslims. Most of the Sikh
followers in those times, as also later on, were Hindu Jats by caste. As these
Hindu Jats were the main support of the Sikh sect and that too, quite strong,
the Punjabi Hindus in general had affection for, and a feeling of oneness
with them. The militant tendencies and the military organizations began to
grow amongst the Sikhs and as a sect of the Hindus, they happened to be
staunch defenders of Hinduism against the increasing ferocity of the
Muslim religious persecution. So, the Moghal government began to look
upon that sect as a troublesome centre of Hindu resistance.
963. Soon the son of Guru Arjun, Guru Hargovind refused to pay taxes to
the emperor. He was, therefore, captured and interned in prison for twelve
years. Later on, when he was released from captivity, he rebelled against the
then Moghal emperor, Shahjahan, who dispatched a small detachment to
crush this apparently meagre opposition. But at Sangram, the Sikhs fought
with such fierceness that the Muslim detachment was completely
vanquished. Although this astounded and pleased the Hindus in Punjab, the
Emperor did not mind it. Guru Hargovind died in A.D. 1645 and was
succeeded by Harrai, Harkrishan and Teg Bahadur as the high priests of the
Sikhs. But it is the exceptional and glorious sacrifice of Teg Bahadur in the
cause of religion, that has given dignity and splendour to the seat of the
high priest of the Sikhs.
963A. Guru Teg Bahadur lived at Anandpur. Whenever the atrocious
conversions of the Hindus to Islam took place in Punjab, Guru Teg Bahadur,
with his Sikh warriors, had often fought and opposed them fiercely. And then
Aurangzeb, the veritable demon in human form, vowed to root out the whole

Hindu world. Naturally, throughout the whole of India, the Hindus too,
opposed him violently. Aurangzeb, particularly, aimed at the top-ranking
Brahmins of Kashmir, and enforced on them the Jizia tax, if they did not opt
for conversion. This caused a great commotion everywhere. At this time,
Guru Teg Bahadur told the Hindus boldly not to pay any such taxes and
preached that they should sacrifice their lives rather than forsake their
religion. When the Hindus began to give such bold replies, Aurangzeb was
aflame with rage. He captured Guru Teg Bahadur and commanded him to
court Islam on pain of death. Guru Teg Bahadur thereupon staunchly refused
to be a Muslim and defied Aurangzeb, who immediately had him beheaded.
This horrible tragedy took place in A.D. 1675. Along with Guru Teg
Bahadur, several of his Hindu disciples also were caught and they all
suffered horrible deaths after all sorts of atrocities and torments, but they
defied the tyrannical Muslim emperor by boldly refusing to be Muslims. The
heads of some of the prominent Hindus were actually cut asunder with a big
saw. Among these martyrs was Bhai Matidas, whose family was lovingly
given the title ‘Bhai’ by the Sikh Gurus and in this very family was born the
latter day Hindu patriot, Bhai Parmanand. The son of this very brave Guru
was the holiest of the holies, the Hindu national hero, Shree Guru Govind
Singh!
The Hindu National Hero—Shree Guru Govind Singh
964. To Shree Guru Govind Singh goes all the credit of militarizing
Sikhism and to create out of that sect, a militant and invincible organization,
which gave a strong impetus to the establishment of a strong and
independent Hindu government in Punjab at the time of Maharaja Ranjit
Singh. He was called Tenth Emperor— दशम बादशाह —because he was
the Tenth Guru from Shree Guru Nanak, not only by the Sikhs but even by
all the Punjabi Hindus. From innumerable daring and thrilling events in his
life, which well illustrate the above remark, only one might suffice here for
want of space for others!
965. As inevitably happens in the case of every big religious organisation,
Guru Nanak’s disciples also came to be divided into many sections and sub-
sections, but they were all living a Hindu way of life. In respect of
marriages and other religious rites and social customs, they were not in any
way separated from the Hindu society. In the ‘Gurugranth’ itself, the
sayings of Hindu saints like Sant Namdev and Kabir were incorporated
along with those of Guru Nanak himself. And from the beginning till this

day, that ‘Adigranth’ has always been read with equal reverence for all
these sayings. But a son of Guru Nanak himself had started a separate
branch of Sikhism.
965A. In course of time, when the Hindus and Sikhs began to be
atrociously persecuted by the Muslims, it was felt that an armed force of the
Sikhs for self-protection was absolutely necessary, and Guru Govind Singh
began to dream of establishing an independent kingdom of the Sikhs. To
that end, he wanted a band of daredevils of inviolable loyalty to their Guru.
966. Guru Govind Singh, therefore, called a big assembly of all the Sikhs.
Such incidents in his life have been described a little later in poetical
compositions, much on the same lines as the colourful descriptions of the
Hindu Puranas. But we shall give here only the historically relevant part of
it.
967. In that big assembly, Guru Govind Singh invited volunteers, who
were prepared even to lay down their lives in the defence of their religion
and willing to spend their whole lives in the army, take it up as their
profession, for, he said, he had to build a standing army of the Sikhs. It was
a very austere vow. Of the many, who thus volunteered, the Guru himself
chose for the first time only the best five who were expected to be as sharp
and as unbending as steel. To imbibe this principle on their minds, the first
religious rite that was performed was the sprinkling on their heads of the
holy water that was churned by a sharp steel sword as the mantras were
chanted. Then it was enjoined upon them that they were always to have a
sword fastened to their waist; they were never to cut the hair on any part of
their body. They were asked ever to gird up their loin, to wear kaccha or
langot—a loin-cloth, and to wear steel rings round their wrists as a mark of
their stern military vow. A comb was also considered to be a must for every
Sikh. Thus hair (केश Kesh), a comb (कंग-कंगवा—Kangha), a loin-cloth
(कच्छ-लंगोट—Kaccha), a steel ring (कड़ा—Kara) and a sword (कृपाण
—Kripan) became the five inseparable marks of every true Sikh, and were
called ‘five kakkas’. The military wing of the Sikhs, specially chosen by the
Guru has since then been called the ‘Khalsa’, which has become an
honourable appellation throughout the whole of India. Khalsa is originally
an Urdu word meaning ‘chosen’!
968. As soon as this Khalsa army reached a desired magnitude, Guru
Govind Singh began to conquer smaller Hindu-Muslim States or to sack

them. Quite naturally, the Moghal Emperor, Aurangzeb, who had most
brutally murdered his father, Teg Bahadur, for not renouncing his religion,
sent a detachment of his army to capture Guru Govind Singh. Because of
the actions that were fought with the Moghal army, the Guru enclosed
himself in the fort of Anandpur, which was immediately invested by the
Moghals. Amongst the soldiers fighting with Guru Govind Singh from the
fort, were two of his sons below the age of eighteen. In order to boost up
the courage of the army, the Guru sent his two sons with other soldiers out
of the fort to fight with the Moghals. While these two sons were being done
to death in this unequal battle, this strange father was crying words of
approbation ‘Wah-wa! Wah-wa!’ At nightfall, the fighting stopped as a
matter of course and the remnant of the Khalsa battalion entered the fort
very stealthily. But of that Khalsa (chosen) soldiers, many had lost hope.
So, the Guru plainly told them all, that those who wanted to save their lives
should leave the Khalsa army and forsake him immediately. He, however,
was determined to fight on from inside or, if neccessary, out of the fort.
Thereupon, from the best chosen (the Khalsa), many Sikh warriors resigned
their membership and deserted Guru Govind Singh. Soon on that dark and
dismal night, Guru Govind Singh bade adieu to those who remained of his
Khalsa army and escaped through the Moghal siege, along with his wife
and two sons, who were under twelve.
969. While after leaving the fort, Guru Govind Singh was thus wandering
through the forest on that fateful night, he lost track of his two tender
children, who unfortunately fell in the enemy hands. Those wicked
monsters gave the young kiddies an ultimatum ‘Forsake Hinduism and
become Muslims, or else we will kill you with all sorts of tortures!’ Prompt
came the reply from the young mouths, thundering dauntlessly—lion’s cubs
as they were—’We are prepared to die for our religion!’ They had refused
to forsake their Hindu religion. Highly enraged at this defiant reply, the
Muslim authorities pronouned their direst sentence. Building a wall round
them to suffocate the two children to death was the horrible punishment
given. Straight stood the two tender children and brick-upon-brick rose to
their very neck, when they were again asked, ‘You kafirs, don’t you forsake
your Hindu religion even now?’ ‘No, no never!’ came the smothered voice!
And even as the two kids were shouting slogans in praise of Hinduism as
loudly as they could in that horrible position, the last bricks were laid, to
bury them for ever.

970. This is truly a glorious incident of martyrdom for the sake of
     Hinduism that has to be honourably listed amongst others in the annals of
     Hindu nation. It is a true historical fact but is to be found only described in
     the poetical form.
971. Kumar Haqiqatrai—At this very time, a Hindu lad, by name Kumar
     Haqiqatrai, happened to draw a picture of the Hindu Goddess of Learning,
     Saraswati, on his slate for worshipping it. But for this very atrocious deed!
     the Muslim officers there sentenced him to be converted to Islam. On his
     refusal to do so, he was threatened with a horrible death. When he defied
     that threat too, he was killed forthwith. The Hindus of the Punjab even
     today celebrate his memory every year as a religious and austicious
     occasion.
972. The End of Guru Govind Singh—After the horrible death of his two
     sons, Guru Govind Singh sent from his exile a conciliatory letter to
     Aurangzeb as a strategic move in politics. The Emperor, too, sent a reply
     and after a certain mutual agreement, Guru Govind Singh was allowed to
     leave the Punjab. Guru Govind Singh thereafter came wandering to
     Maharashtra and settled at Nanded. Here it was that two Pathan disciples of
     his conspired and attacked him while he was soundly sleeping. The wounds
     that he received in that struggle proved fatal and soon he died.
973. Guru Govind Singh had passed his boyhood days, not in Punjab but
     in Patna in Bihar, for reasons of safety. As such, he grew fond of the Bihari
     Hindi language, in which, later on, he became well-versed. His
     autobiography, ‘Vichitra Natak’, is written in the Bihari Hindi, not in the
     ‘Gurumukhi’ Punjabi. He also composed a heroic poem on the Goddess,
     ‘Chandika’. He symbolised the sword as Goddess ‘Chandika’ herself and
     has writen a hymnal song on it. We have already cited some of its warlike
     passages in our other books under the caption ‘Jay Tegam’ (Jay Khadgam).
     As the writings of this tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Govind Singh, are in Hindi,
     and the duties he had enjoined on the Khalsa sect were not so very palatable
     to the traditional devotees of Guru Nanak, they did not find a place in the
     ‘Adigranth’, whereas the sayings of all the former nine Gurus were included
     in it. So the writings of Guru Govind Singh were collected in the so-called
     ‘Dasham Granth’ (दशम ग्रंथ), the tenth book.
974. Another fact that is important from the point of view of the Hindus
     must be mentioned here. Because of the creation of the Khalsa sect, there
     have been two divisions amongst the Sikhs: Sahajdhari and Keshdhari. The

Sahajdharis follow the path of Guru Nanak. They don’t allow the hair to
grow uncut, nor are they particular about following the other ‘kakkas’.
Thousands of such Hindu Sikhs fall under this Sahajdhari sect. But it must
be remembered that it was Shree Govind Singh who, by giving them a
martial garb, built the Sikhs into a virile sub-Hindu nation, which could
ultimtely oust the Muslim rule from the Punjab at the point of the sword.
975. Shree Veer Banda Bairagi—The name, which can never be omitted
from the list of the brave martyrs of Hindu history, is that of Veer Banda
Bairagi, who for the first time avenged the wrongs done by the Muslims on
the Hindus and even boldly attacked them. He was originally a Vaishnav
saint known round about Nanded, where he happened to meet Guru Govind
Singh, from whom he gradually learnt of the miserable plight of the Hindus
in Punjab, of the harrowing calamities that befell Guru Govind Singh’s own
family and of the relentless war he himself had carried out in spite of all
odds. He was particularly much moved to hear the despairing complaint of
the Guru that there was nobody left in Punjab to avenge the tragic deaths of
his four sons. His blood began to boil and he once again took the bow and
arrows of his former vocation in life. Guru Govind Singh wrote a note to all
his former disciples to render Veer Banda every possible help. Taking that
note and vowing terrible revenge upon the Muslims for the inhuman
atrocities committed by them on the Hindus, this brave Hindu soul made his
way to the Punjab.
976. But alas! want of space and my own old age makes it imperative that
whatever is written so far should be somehow rounded up. Else I would
certainly have described, if not in full, at least briefly the havoc Veer Baba
Banda wrought amongst the Muslims of Punjab, their grand slaughter, the
most appropriate retaliation of the molestation of the Hindu women, the
capture of the same Sirhind, where Guru Govind Singh’s two sons were
buried alive behind the brick-walls, and the eventual burning of the Muslim
locality there, not to speak of the abject parade of Muslim men, women and
children, barefooted. In the hot sun, the same atrocious tortures of the
Muslims as were visited upon the Hindus for not renouncing Hinduism and
finally the proclamation of a Hindu State in the whole of Punjab. We have
already shown in the sixth chapter of this book, how the Muslim
community was panic-stricken whenever the Hindus opened up religious
aggression on the Muslims. Baba Banda also struck terror in the hearts of
the Punjabi Muslims by his retaliatory aggression. At last, the Emperor of

Delhi sent a big army to Punjab. Resorting to the guerrilla warfare, Baba
Banda defeated it at various places. But as ill-luck would have it, the Khalsa
Sikhs began to be jealous of the epithet ‘Hindu commander’, which Baba
Banda Bairagi had chosen for himself. Ultimately, that jealousy grew to
such an extent that the united Hindu army of Veer Banda broke into two
factions, and the one consisting of the Khalsa Sikhs deserted him. The
Khalsa Sikh faction was by itself not able to conquer the Muslims.
Naturally, the Moghal army grew stronger and in a desperate action, valiant
Banda Bairagi fell into the Muslim hands with his only son and close
followers. The Muslims were haunted by a false fear that Veer Banda
possessed some magic power, and the higher Muslim officials, too, feared
that even when he was bound hand and foot with strong iron fetters, Veer
Banda Baba would transform himself into a cat and would escape through
the ranks of a powerful army. So, he was sent to Delhi, locked in a strong
cage, like a wild beast, along with many other captive Hindu warriors. What
a horrible scene it was when he was, brought in the presence of the
Emperor! How hellishly inhuman the torture of Veer Banda, his only son
and his hundred or so Hindu followers, and the streams of blood that
flowed! Veer Banda was not beheaded or killed straightway. He was pierced
scores of times with red-hot iron bars and lumps of his flesh were cut out
every time with a view to making him suffer extreme torture before he died
—but there is no scope to describe this harrowing scene here. But every
true and grateful Hindu should rather read it from the books written by the
Sikhs and Muslim writers themselves.
977. The History of the Sikhs Written by me—I am very sad that I cannot
refer the reader to the History of the Sikhs I had written years ago. It is
necessary that the reason be explained here. Round about the year 1909, in
the thick of the revolutionay activities, when I happened to go from
England to France, I stayed for a month or so with Madame Cama. During
that short period, I wrote out in Marathi the thrilling history of the Sikhs,
running to about two hundred pages or so, based on the proven material It
had at my disposal at the time. I had studied almost all the Sikh literature
right from the first book of Sikh literature, named ‘Bhai Balaki
Janamsakhi’—the lifestory of Guru Nanak written by his disciple ‘Bhai
Bala’—to the tenth book—Dasham-granth of the tenth Guru Govind Singh
in the original, not to speak of the Histories of the Sikhs by Cunningham
and other English writers. I had brought the account of the Sikhs up to the

establishment of a new Hindu Kingdom by Maharaja Ranjit Singh right
from the river Shatadru (Sutlej) to the Sindhu (Indus) and much above
towards Jammu and Kashmir by uprooting the Muslim power from Punjab
and avenging the defeats of Jaypal and Anangpal. But even today, it pains
me to say that the manuscript of that book must have very likely fallen into
the English hands who destoryed it. Else, the person with whom I had
entrusted it to be taken to India for being printed and published, must have
drowned it into the sea for fear of the search by the English police
somewhere on his way to India. Doubtless it is, that Marathi book of mine
has been lost before it could be published—has been destroyed!
978. Even then whoever has a mind should read my poem composed in
the Andamans on this tragic, yet imperishable and resplendent martyrdom
of Shree Veer Banda, which is available even now.
979. According to the belief prevalent among his disciples, Veer Banda’s
body was thrown away into the debris on the outskirts of the city under the
impression that he was dead. But with his magic power and some
miraculous herb that his disciples made him eat, Veer Banda Baba came to
his senses and he was secretly and immediately taken to Punjab. Further on,
an institution grew up in his name and hundreds of his Sikh followers have
kept it running to this day under the name ‘Bandai’. Like the Kuka
followers of Guru Ram Singh of a later date, these ‘Bandais’ call
themselves Hindus.
980. After the tragic death of Veer Banda, there was no armed force left
either of the Khalsas, Bandais, Sahajdharis or any other Sikh or Hindu sect.
Every one of them was disorganized and disgruntled. But on the contrary,
the Muslim political power had begun to crumble down by the time it was
fighting with Veer Banda. Throughout the whole of India, a new resurgent
Hindu power—the Maratha military and political aspiration—was dealing
knock-down blows to the Moghal imperial power and the latter existed only
nominally from Delhi to Punjab, Multan, Kashmir and Kandahar. Only the
local ruffians terrorized the general populace with their bands of
scoundrels!
981. How the Sikh power grew thereafter and how, at last in the times of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh, it spread throughout the whole of Punjab and
Kashmir, obliterating every vestige of the Muslim rule and how the Hindu
independent empire came into existence—we can only just hint at here! For
all these events fall out of the period under discussion here.

982. However, two or three statements about this period of Punjabi
     History can be made here briefly and it is necessary to do so.
983. The first successful attempt to overthrow the Muslim rule in Punjab
     was made by the Marathas. The belief prevalent in the histories of the Sikhs
     and in the other loosely written history books of India that the Sikhs ousted
     the Muslim rule from Punjab for the first time is erroneous. Even when the
     Sikhs were at the height of their glory, they could not conquer the
     neighbouring Muslim capital, Delhi. In bringing this to light, we do not in
     the least mean to disparage the Sikhs, but we do certainly want to stop
     every attempt at belittling the national glory of the Marathas, by pointing
     out false things. No doubt, the credit of overthrowing the Muslim rule, at
     least in the precincts of Punjab and establishing there an independent Hindu
     State, like that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, goes primarily to our Sikh
     organisation. But it is equally true, beyond any vestige of doubt, that the
     Maratha valour which, lunging, as it did, from Poona, fluttered the
     victorious and resplendent flag of the Hindu nation to the South right up to
     Tanjawar (Tanjore) and to the north to the very banks of the Sindhu (Indus)
     and beyond, fighting battles after battles and reducing the Muslim Emperor
     of Delhi to a nominal existence—a thing of shreds and patches—can have
     no parallel at least in the Hindu history of that long period of seven
     centuries.
984. The Independent Hindu State of Nepal: In our history books and the
     school textbooks of Indian history, almost every Indian region is mentioned.
     But strangely enough, the state of Nepal and the valiant Hindu Kingdom
     there is never mentioned—or if at all, only in passing over the campaigns of
     Ochterloney—as if Nepal is in no way connected with Hindu India. But, in
     fact, Nepal is as much an indivisible part of India as are Maharashtra,
     Punjab or Madras. These regions might have been governed by different
     rulers at different times, but the term Hindu Nation is equally applicable to
     all of them. The rest of the Indian continent was subjected to aggressions by
     Asian Muslims and European Christians during the last nine or ten centuries
     and there were constant wars. But fortunately, Nepal was singularly
     immune to all the political and religious aggressions. On the whole, in
     Nepal alone, could Hindu religion and Hindu culture maintain its
     independence unimpaired against the incursions of the foreigners. As such,
     Nepal must really be considered to be the best part of Hindu India, and
     should be given the palm of honour in the history of our Hindu Nation! But

because of our thoughtlessness, the result is just the reverse. Only because
Nepal did not get lost in the mire of foreign domination and slavery and
because it kept itself aloof from the political upheavals in India, our
frivolous history books mention that nation only in passing or never at all!
985. In order to rectify this spineless (dishonourable) perversion, we
started a movement in India as soon as we were released from the
Andamans in 1924 in respect of Nepal, as people well know. At that very
time, we wrote a book on the History of Nepalese Movement! (नेपाली
आंदोलनाचा इतिहास) and in it we gave an account of the brave history
of Nepal and its role in the protection and maintenance of the independence
of Hindu religion and culture. But now in this discourse on Hindu history,
paucity of space prevents any such detailed account--and there is no need
for it. In the early part of the tenth century and onwards, Nepal was
governed by Newari Hindus. Thereafter, it was captured by some of the
Rajputs who left Rajputana because of the Muslim aggression to seek
fortune elsewhere. Gradually, these Rajputs spread up to Kathmandu, which
they made their capital. The strong Hindu government which these Rajputs
established there is the modern Nepal. This much reference is enough here
to attract the attention of the Indian Hindus to its importance and to the
homogeneity of race of Nepal with ours.
986. These Rajputs being strong worshippers and protectors of the cow
(गोरक्षक), eventually came to be called Gorkha by caste.
986A. Although it refers to the more recent times, we should like to make
a special mention of the fact that while the whole of India was being
governed by the English, thousands of Gorkhas (Gurkhas) had joined the
English army and in both the great world wars, they showed so much
prowess and bravery and exceptional skill in fighting, that even the best
soldiers in England, America and Germany, too, were astounded. Hence,
today a Gurkha soldier has proverbially come to mean an excellent warrior!
The latter half of Akbar's life
987. It has already been shown, in Paragraphs 946 to 954 of this book,
what cruelty and atrocity Akbar resorted to in order to crush Hinduism and
the Hindu rulers. Even those passing references alone are quite sufficient to
prove that he was as fanatical and as fiercely inimical to Hinduism and the
Hindu nation, as was either Allauddin or Aurangzeb.

988. European writers on Indian history slowly hint and our Hindu writers
     slavishly and thoughtlessly imitate them. When they say that Akbar was not
     like other Moghal or Muslim fellows, meaning thereby that he did not hate
     Hinduism and the Hindu nation, that he was just, and never differentiated
     between the Hindus and the Muslims, that he ruled equitably and, as such,
     the Hindus must be highly grateful to him. This eulogy of Akbar is utterly
     false. We, Hindus, can either show respect, gratitude and affection for Rana
     Pratap or for his dire enemy, Akbar. How can we show equal affection and
     respect for both of them? How can we worship God and the devil at the
     same time? How even can we compare the fanatical Akbar who deprived
     the independence of the Hindu kings like Rana Pratap and thrust the yoke of
     slavery on their necks, who demanded the Hindu royal princesses as queens
     and concubines in order to add insult to their injury and attacked with his
     vast armies those, who declined to do so, and crushed them completely—
     how can we compare him with those thousands of martyrs and valiant
     Hindu leaders like Rana Pratap and Rani Durgawati, who laid down their
     lives on the battlefields in defence of Hindu Nation, Hindu states and Hindu
     religion?
989. Another important point that has so far escaped the notice of many of
     our gullible and slavish Hindu writers, is that to say that Akbar treated all
     his subjects equally and sponsored equality of status for the whole humanity
     —as is being taught in schools—is absolutely erroneous and is the result of
     bad habit of extolling the Muslims unproportionately. For, being a Moghal
     Emperor, he never hesitated to crush down ruthlessly anyone who refused
     to bear the yoke of his sovereignty—might he then be a Muslim or a Hindu!
     Now all the Muslims were not Moghals. As a matter of fact, many of them
     hated the Moghals bitterly, because he had extended his empire by
     destroying the old Afghan and Turkish Sultanates. It means that like any
     other ambitious adventurer, Akbar fought for the sake of his own Moghal
     glory not only against the Hindus alone but against others also. Obviously
     enough, he did not treat even the Muslims equally. He liquidated and
     annexed many Muslim kingdoms. Only with a view to safeguarding the
     interests of his empire, did Akbar in his later life repeal the revolting
     religious taxes like the Jizia and refrained from opening campaigns of mass
     conversion of Hindus. There was no such intention of behaving equitably,
     the Hindus and the Muslims behind this policy, as is generally supposed.
     On the contrary, he knew quite well that whenever such atrocities were