Mother India by her Unsung Heroes (2)

Chapter 2.  Lost in History

Our journey begins from a long-long time ago, an era that marked the start of a glorious civilization the Harappan civilization merging into the well know Indus valley civilization. The time when the mysterious Aryan race travelled and settled in the pre historic India. The Indus civilization and its phenomenal architecture and city planning are topics of great awe even to the present day. The already blooming Indus civilization was given a boost from the arrival of the Aryans. Along with them they brought horses and other livelihood resources namely iron and its tools – helping ease the daily chores, their religion and beliefs. People in that era found a common ground to communicate and discuss their ideas for the greater good through the mother of all languages – Sanskrit. Sanskrit formed the basis of word flow from one group to another, form one generation to the next. Following the rules of planning, implementation and communication, it was not long before life and trade blossomed in the Indus valley civilization. Moving further, the trails take us to the Vedic age, a crucial point for formation of Bharat or Hind. They were the ages when the basic foundations of Indian civilization were laid down. The Vedic society was further driven by the ideology of  patriarchal and patrilineal, whose remains we can feel even to the present day. It was also the time when the Vedas were formed and written. The Vedas meaning knowledge, captured the true meaning of life and the way to live a fruitful life. They are divided into four parts, the Rig Veda contains hymns about mythology; the Sama Veda consists mainly of hymns about religious rituals; the Yajur Veda contains instructions for religious rituals; and the Atharva Veda consists of spells against enemies, sorcerers and diseases. These texts helped instil the basis of the Hindu synthesis or Hinduism. The Vedas, a pristine script whose comprehension is so powerful that people still refer to it whenever needed, also its roots can be found in various scientific and medicinal researches. 

Till the 1920’s, this rich and prosperous truth was hidden from the world. A massive civilization lost to the mercy of mother nature. It was not until the late 1920’s that these ruins were unearthed and investigated upon. We owe all these discoveries to the determined and passionate archaeologists, who worked tirelessly to uncover the hidden secrets behind the old, broken, abandoned ruins of a beautiful city that was once filled with love and life. It is to these dedicated people we are debated to for these great findings. Stories, revelations like this help spread feelings of proudness and pridefulness towards one’s county and its culture. It ignites the flame that makes us realize that we are grateful for being a part of the great Indian family. A force that drives us to feel blessed to belong to a race that had such a notable impact on the religious, cultural and economic front and inculcates the emotions of nationality and oneness. All this excitement, these high spirits, this positivity, only because a few resolute people set-on an expedition to excavate the truth and bring it to the light. Without them these unrevealed truths would have been lost somewhere deep below our feet. They are truthfully, one of the many unsung heroes of our India. Our historians are no less, they also play their parts to perfection and recreate history as it is through just their pens and papers. They give life to mere stories and animate the otherwise inanimate words.

Proceeding further down the road laid out by our historians, we halt at the Maurya Empire, where an Indian teacher from the renowned Takshashila university, one of the oldest universities – Chanakya and his diplomacy tactics referred as the ‘Chanakya Niti ’ are so famous, that speakers till date refer to it for inspiration and guidance.

The next major milestone in the formation of present day India, was the invasion of the Mughals, progressing into the Mughal Empire. Before the Mughal rule, the north of the Indian subcontinent was divided up into several independent Hindu and Muslim kingdoms. The Mughals driven by the force of conquer and dominance ruled millions of people and united India under one rule. The Mughals forced the different rulers to bow down to their way of rule and completely surrender their lands to them, these doings were bound to receive rebellions and unite the individual kingdoms to fight for their land. Names like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his dream of ‘Swarajya’, Sambhaji Bhosale, Peshwa Bajirao and Maharana Pratap have been the talk of the country since ages and are immortal names in the pages of history. However, it wasn’t just these names that fought valiantly for their nation, there were many others whose actions were not recorded and hence became lost in the vast storm of history. 

Mata Bhag Kaur, the only daughter of a prominent landowner of a village in Amritsar, became a great warrior who led a group of 40 Sikh warriors against the 10,000 strong Mughal army in the Battle of Muktsar in 1705. Additionally, she even served as a bodyguard to Guru Gobind Singh during his exile. Durgadas Rathore, the preserver of the rule of Rathore dynasty over Marwar, stood bravely against the unjust Aurangzeb, and his conspiracy to place Marwar under Muslim rule after the death of Marwar’s king Jaswant Singh. Rani TaraBai a skilled queen in cavalry movement and strategic movements of war, acted as a regent after Rajaram Bhosale, her husband’s death until the coming of age of her infant son. She fearlessly kept alive the resistance against Mughal occupation of Maratha territories and firmly resisted their atrocities. These short stories of a few brave hearts are just the tip of an iceberg. If you start to dig, you’ll get lost in the immense action of pure courage. 

This was just one of the many attempts to strain the beauty of our magnificent country under chains, the next attack was initiated by the British East India Company. The British came to India with a mindset to trade but were guided by the hunger to rule over the divided India. Before British colonization, the Indian subcontinent was a patchwork of regional kingdoms known as princely states populated by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis, and Jews. Each princely state had its own traditions, caste backgrounds, and leadership. By the mid-18th century, the English East India Company emerged as the primary colonial power in India. The British ruled some provinces directly, and ruled the princely states indirectly. In the 19th century, the British began to categorize Indians by religious identity, a gross simplification of the varied communities in India. They counted Hindus as “majorities” and all other religious communities as distinct “minorities”. In elections, people could only vote for candidates of their own religious identification. These practices exaggerated differences, sowing distrust between communities that had previously co-existed. The 20th century began with decades of anti-colonial movements, where Indians fought for independence from Britain, in their own different style of non-violence. The narratives of veer Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rani Lakshmi Bai, the battle of Saragarhi is well known and have been reconstructed into famous motion pictures. The other lesser known luminaries and their tales still continue to inspire us and make us feel highly of the society we live in. Searching on the internet you will find thousands of these forgotten names, and their legacies. Examining more carefully we can find more hidden names and photos engraved on old postal stamps. 

The heroic act of Baji Rout a 12 year old boat boy, who was shot by British police when he refused to ferry them across the river are every motivating and moving. Udham Singh a remembered name for his involvement in the assassination of General Michael O’Dwyer – the man responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Ashfaq Ulla Khan was one of the main minds behind the Kakori Conspiracy, along with Ram Prasad Bismil and Chandrashekhar Azad. Kanaklata Barua, participated in the Quit India Movement and led the women volunteers aiming to hoist the National Flag at the British dominated Gohpur Police Station. She was shot down by the police and sacrificed her life at the age of 18. The list goes on and on, where there is oppression towards the common there is a rise of fighters who stand against them and revolt for the good of the many.

In August 1947, the British rule caved in and India gained independence after 200 years. What followed was one of the largest and bloodiest forced migrations in history. An estimated one million people lost their lives. In June, the British viceroy announced that India would gain independence by August, and be partitioned into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. Using outdated maps, inaccurate census numbers and minimal knowledge of the land, in a mere five weeks, the Boundary Committee drew a line on the map of India. Hindus and Muslims began moving to areas where they thought they’d be a part of the religious majority and families started dividing themselves. The cities of Lahore, Delhi, Calcutta, Dhaka, and Karachi emptied of old residents and filled with refugees. The problems created by Partition went far beyond this immediate deadly aftermath. Many families who made temporary moves became permanently displaced, and borders continue to be disputed. 

The Indo-Pak border has seen many wars, many brawls and its soil are rich from the sacrifices of the brave hearts that laid down their lives so that common people could live in peace. The wars of 1947, 1965, 1971 gave us new names to add to our list of mother India’s heroes. Colonel Neelakantan Jayachandran Nair, Gurbachan Singh Salaria, Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, Arun Kumar Vaidya, Nand Singh, Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla are a few of those brave men. It is not just these names but the perseverance of the whole Indian Armed Forces who are accountable for praise. I salute to them for their undeterred resolve to bring peace and happiness to their mother land. It is not only our armed forces but also the agents of the various Indian intelligence agencies are equally liable for the title for India’s unsung heroes. Despite knowing the gruesome reality of death, they keep their lives on stake to phish for crucial information that could aid our soldiers on the field. These immense actions require such great daringness, dauntlessness that only hearing their stories gives us goosebumps. They are the people that make this country great. 

Continuing this bequest we reach our final destination, our present day, the growing India….