Barbarians at the gate!
by
GP.Srinivasan
THE SACK OF SOMNATH (417 HIJRI 1026 CE),
SRIRANGAM ( 1311C.E) AND
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER,USA ( SEPT, 11.2001) and
THE LESSONS FOR WORLD COMMUNITY.
On the momentous day September 2001, when I witnessed the attacks on WTC on TV Screen, I wrote the following email to CNN HQ at Atalanta:
"The United States of America faced jihad in its own soil for the first time only on September 11th 2001. Based on the long 1300 years of Hindu experience in facing Jihads, the WTC attacks will not be last one on American soil. Take for example Somnath Temple on the Gujarat coast of India. It was a major pilgrim center. The Somnath case is a case in point and should well serve as benchmark for the study of Islamic iconoclasm in India and the lessons it holds for America. The sack of Somnath has gone into the imaginations of the Islamic lore and fired greater zeal to carry out similar exploits, and the treatment it received from poets as the WTC would become after some years".
The Sack of Somnath (417 HIJRI 1026 CE),
The first Jihad came to India exactly 1297 years ago; merely four years after the last day of prophet Mohamed on earth. Mohammed Bin Kasim invaded Sind in 712 AD. Denying Islam's destructive role in Indian history is similar to the attempts by some European writers to deny the Nazi Holocaust history and the role of European negationists who applaud Hitler's reign and deny its horrors. Indian negationists eulogize Islamic rule and deny its billion fold murders and the catastrophe it wrought in Indian social cultural, political and religious life.
THE SACK OF SOMANATH (417 HIJRI 1026 CE)
It is indeed noticeable that after Somnath expedition (417 Hijri 1026 CE), a deed fired the imagination of the Islamic world, caliph al-quadir billah himself celebrated the victory with great eclat. He sent Muhammad Bin Kasim a very complimentary letter giving him the title kahf-ud-daula wa-al- Islam, and formerly called him as the ruler of India. The world has not largely heard about these atrocities. Somnath was rebuilt repeatedly four times in the following centuries, when the Hindus could get some peace. To the horror of Hindus every time it was rebuilt, it was destroyed by Islamic hordes. Only after Indian independence in 1947 could Hindus think of rebuilding it. With the leadership of Home Minister, Sardar Patel called as the Iron man of India a man of strong resolve could the Temple be rebuilt and was inaugurated in 1954 the symbol of Indian national pride- but the compulsive Hindu hater Jawaharlal Nehru did not attend the inaugural function.
TIMOR LANG Said
My objective of coming to Hindustan has been to accomplish two things. The first was to war with the infidels, the enemies of Mohammedan religion; and by religious warfare to acquire some claim to reward in life to come. The other aim was that the army of Islam might gain something by plundering the wealth and valuables of the infidels: plunder in war is lawful as their mothers milk to mussalmans who war for their faith.He killed 100000 Hindus in one day. An estimated 60 to 100 million Hindus perished in the last 1300 years.
NEGATIONISM IN INDIA
"Negationism in India - Concealing the Record of Islam" by Dr.Koenraad Elst demonstrates that there exists a 'prohibition' of criticism of Islam and a denial of its 'historic crimes against humanity' that amounts to censorship, comparing it to Denial of Holocaust by Hitler and Nazis. 'Holocaust-Deniers' in Europe often keep all evidence out of view or deny the existence of such evidence. They are severely dealt by the State Laws. Many historians and Nazi sympathizers who attempted to white wash Nazi history have landed in jail.
"When one compares the negationists in India with the negationists in Europe, the sheer number of Hindu Victims far exceeds that of Jews to Nazi Genocide".
HITLER MURDERED 21, 000, 000, Humans.
The Adolph Hitler (1933-1945) claimed 21,000,000 lives. The Nazi reign lasted for a mere twelve years in Europe. (www.democide.com)
On the whole the Islamic rule on India lasted for a protracted period of nine hundred years. It extended from Khurasan (now in Iran ) to Rameshwaram in South. The Islamic reports on the massacres of Hindus, destruction of 66000 Hindu temples, the abduction of Hindu women, sent to slavery in Mecca Medina and Baghdad and forced conversions of Hindus invariably expressed with great glee and pride ...and the massacre runs into thousands of pages of documents stored in all achieves and museums all over India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Arabia, and Kazakhstan, Tajikistan to Ukraine of former USSR. Historians of the Aligarh school (e.g. Irfan Habib) or Indian Marxists (e.g. Romila Thapar, R.C. Sharma, Harbans Mukhia, Champaka lakshmi, Pande) have resorted to heavy distortions and history rewriting.
Very recently Romila Thapar accepted and retracted with regret the colonial Aryan invasion theory. It would have seen a natural death several decades in advance had it not been for the scaffoldings erected by Stalinist historians of JNU and Therefore, in 1982 the National Council of Educational Research and Training issued a directive for the rewriting of schoolbooks. Among other things, it stipulated that: "Characterization of the medieval period as a time of conflict between Hindus and Muslims is forbidden." Under Marxist pressure, negations have become the defacto policy of the Indian establishment".
GENOCIDES AGAINST HINDUS
Looking back into the History of Genocides committed in India could be daunting task, but not impossible and by using regression analysis one could arrive at figures, unpleasant: the victims could run into hundreds of millions, if not billions. Human life is fragile if not robust for victims and not for aggressors. F.Gautier is right when he says between year 1000 and 1525 eighty million Hindus died at the hands of Muslim Invaders. He was rather quoting from an understatement.
Three major famines struck India between 1800 1900 alone; in a mere 100 years, 110 million Indians died at the hands of British, definitely F.Gautier who quotes from other researchers who had quantified data on democide (death by Governments and Dictators) have every reason to disbelieve the data at hand and take a close look at the revised figures and update.
It was not Aurangzeb but Mohamed Bin Kasim who started the persecution of Hindus. But the invading Arabs in 712 CE started the first persecution. It was continued by a long list of tyrants: Mohd. Ghazni, Delhi Sultanates, Mohd Ghori, Timor Lang, Illutmish, Thuglak, Mughal Empire, inquisitions by Portuguese in Goa, followed by British, French and Dutch in their territories .The Partition of India led to unimaginable loss of (some estimate three million human lives and genocide), followed Jammu and Kashmir; 1971 Pakistani atrocities in West Pakistan that resulted in a war with Pakistan and segregation of Bangladesh; Tasleema Nasreen wrote about the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh in her LAJJA) , for which she has been hounded out of India) continues into 2008!.
According to Bangladeshi author Tasleema Nasreen in 1941, the Muslims were 70.3 Percent of the Bangladeshi population, while Hindus were 28.3 percent. In 1951, the Muslims were 76.9 % and Hindus were 22.0 percent. In 1961,the Muslims were 80.4 percent, Hindus 18.5 percent. In 1974, there were 85.4 percent Muslims and 12.1 percent Hindus. In 1991,the Muslims were 87.4 percent, and the Hindus 12.6 percent. What do we understand from this? That every year the number of Muslims is increasing, while that of the Hindus decreasing. What is happening to the Hindus? Where are they going? If the government insists that they are not migrating, then how will they explain away the figures of the census? Do you the latest about the new census? Apparently Hindus and Muslims will not be counted separately. Why not? Because the Hindus are dwindling so rapidly they may as well be clubbed with the Muslims, instead of being considered a separate entity (26 Lajja p. 189, penguin 1993.)
One of the characters of Tasleema Nasreen, Sudhamoy, discovers the rapid decrease of the Hindu population in Bangladesh from an aging census report for 1986 which also had records , according to Nasreen of the years 1974 and 1981. This was the story it told: This record is of the Chittagong Hill tracts. In 1974, the total Population in the hill areas of Chittagong was five lakhs and eighty thousand. The Muslims living there amounted to 96000 in that year. In 1981, the number of Muslims went up to 1,88,000, and over the overall population of Chittagong went up by five lakhs and eighty thousand. In 1974,the Hindus had numbered 53,000 and this figure had increased to 66,000 in 1981.The rate of increase of Muslims was around 87.05 percent, while the Hindus had increased at the rate of approximately 18.87 percent. In 1974, in Commilla, the estimated number of Muslims was 5,250,000 and this figure had increased to 6,300,000.
The number of Hindus in 1974 was 5,64,000 numbered, and in 1981 this had increased 5,65,000. The rate of increase of Muslims was roughly twenty percent, while Hindus had increased at the rate of around 0.18 percent. In Faridpur the population had increased by 17.34 percent. The Muslims numbered 3,100,000 in 1974, and in 1981 there were 3,852,000. The rate of increase was around 24.26 percent. In 1974, the number of Hindus was 9,44,000 and in 1981 this had decreased to 8,94,000. The rate of increase was (minus) 5.30 percent.
In Pabna, the population had increased by 21.63 percent between 1974 and 1981.there were 2,546,000 Muslims in 1974 and in 1981 the figure had gone up to 3,167,000. The rate of increased was 24.39 percent. On the other hand, there were 2,60,000 Hindus in 1974 and in 1981 their numbers had increased to 2,51,000. The rate of increase was (minus) 3.46 percent. In Rajshahi, the population had increased by 23.78 percent. The Muslims had increased by 27.20 percent. In 1974 Hindus numbered 5,58,000 and in 1981 they numbered 5,03,000. The rate of increase among Hindus was -9.68 percent. In 1974, the Hindu population was 13.5 percent of the total population. Where had the rest gone? Was leaving the country the only solution? Shouldnt they have stayed and fought for their rights in their own country? Asks a character in that novel. p.68. (Lajja, Penguin, 1993.)
Prof. K.S. Lal suggests a calculation in his book Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India, which estimates that between the years 1000 AD and 1500 AD the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. This is very conservative estimate. Even those Hindus who converted to Islam were not immune from persecution, which was illustrated by the Muslim Caste System in India as established by Ziauddin al-Barani in the Fatawa-i Jahandari, where they were regarded as "Ajlaf" caste and subjected to severe discrimination by the "Ashraf" castes
Bharat is the land of Gods, Sages, Rishis Munis, Holy Temples and Rivers where great Civilization took birth and Men and Women thought and breathed about God and learned Philosophies debated. Bharat has been under attack for centuries by the Islamic armies. Srirangam on the Banks of the Kaveri and Kollidam, is a unique town, that has a hoary history that dates back to Ramayana. The main deity, Sri Rangantha, was the patron deity of the Ikshwahu dynasty in which Dasaratha, the father of Shri Ram took avatar.
The World famous Srirangam Temple, is the official HQ of Sri Vaishnavism had borne the brunt of many an Islamic onslaught. For centuries it was under repeated attacks and then recovered. During one such severe attack the moola vigraha was saved by devotees who covered it with sand, and constructed a very thick stone wall around the main deity, to save the deity from falling into the hands of Invaders and destruction.
When the Muslim army broke into the cloistered town, they found a festival going on, and Hindus great devotion, worshipping. They caught hold of these unarmed devotees, by their long tufts, and beheaded them. This gruesome act lasted for some hours. In the end the swordsmen of Islam had put down to death all those 12000 devotees of Vishnu. The trunk less heads of 12000 Sri Vaishnavas were dumped in a huge pile. When the maundering Muslim hoarders crashed into the main temple, a band of devotees, had already carried the utsava murthy, and fled down south. This operation was carried under the able leadership of Sri Pillai Lokachariyar, a great acharya of Vaishnavism. This utsava murthy was kept hidden and taken to several places remained hidden in forests for 48 long years. At last when the temple reopened, the temple had had no worship for three long generations.
SACK OF SRIRANGAM 1311C.E
Attacks by Malik Kafur, the general of Allauddin Khilji:
According the traditional accounts, the Muslim army lead by Malik Kafur entered the Srirangam temple through the northern gateway of the 3rd enclosure. The resistance of the Brahmins was overcome easily, the treasury and the storehouse were plundered and numerous icons were desecrated and destroyed. Malik Kafurs foray however did not last long and soon, he retreated to the north with all the treasure he had looted from the temples of South India. The temple rituals resumed as before after the Muslim army retreated.
1323 C.E.- Ulugh Khan's expedition and the sack of Srirangam temple:
Ghiyas-ud-din Tuglaq, the Sultan of Delhi, deputed his eldest son Ulugh Khan to invade the Hindu kingdoms of South India in 1321 C.E. When the Muslim army of Ulugh Khan was close to the Srirangam temple, a festival was being conducted, in the course of which the procession image of Lord Ranganath was taken to a nearby shrine. The gathered devotees decided to keep the image where it was and the festival was continued.
When the invaders reached Samayapuram, Srirangarajanathan Vaduldesika, a senior official of the temple, decided that no time was to be lost, and commanding the 12000 ascetics who had gathered there not to disperse, he sent away the procession image of the deity in the southern direction secretly, with Pillai Lokacarya as the guide of the secret party. Then, he dispatched secretly the image of Sriranga Nacciyar and a few boxes of treasure with a few attendants to a safe place, locked the doors of the sanctum sanctorum, barred the doorways of the shrines of both Lord Ranganayaka and Devi Ranganayika, placed pseudo images outside and then fled to the shrine of Panvijavian.
The invading army desecrated the shrine, killed all the 12000 ascetics, including the great scholar Sri Sundarsana Bhatta. Another sage, Sri Vedanta Desika, hid himself amongst the corpses together with the sole manuscript of the Srutaprakasika, the magnum opus of Sri Sudarsana, and also the latter�s two sons. When the massacre was over, they fled to Satyamangalam in Mysore, where Sri Vedanta Desika published the Srutaprakasika. It is said that the image was finally housed in the protected sanctuary of Tirupati, unfortunately after Pillai Lokacarya died of shock when he heard of the slaughter of his kith and kin at Srirangam.
The Muslim army occupied the temple precincts and put and an end to Hindu worship. A temple courtesan, who fascinated the invading general, prevailed upon him not to destroy the temple altogether, and restrict his vandalism to the destruction of a few cornices. The Brahmins in the surrounding areas tried to perform the sacred rituals whenever they could, but were harassed by the occupying Muslim forces constantly. The general was constantly attacked by disease as long as he remained in the temple, and so he moved to the nearby Poysalesvara temple, which he destroyed and erected a fortress at its place.
GREAT SACRIFICE OF THE COURTESAN
The tale of sack of Srirangam cannot be complete without the mention of the sacrifice of the temple courtesan. Unable to bear the harassment of the devotees by the Muslims, she enticed the Muslim chief, took him up a temple tower in the east, and in the pretext of showing him a famous icon from there, she pushed him down and killed him. Scared that she will be tortured by the Muslims as a result of her deed, she threw herself also down. According to tradition, to honor her memory, the funeral pyres of temple courtesans are lit by fire brought from the temple kitchen. In 1371 C.E., the newly founded Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar wrested back Srirangam from Muslim control, and re-installed the icon hidden at Tirupati with full ceremonies and processions.
1752-1758 C.E.- Depredations by the French:
During these 6 years, the temple was under the occupation of the French, who ruled from Pondicherry. They plundered the temple, and were planning on harassing the entire population that had taken refuge in the shrine, when an old Frenchman pleaded for mercy on behalf of the local inhabitants. Numerous accounts exist of the harassment of the inhabitants of the nearby areas by the occupying troops, including the molestation of women. The inner precincts of the temple were saved from desecration by 1000 Rajput soldiers of the army of Chanda Saheb.
1781 C.E.- The threat of another sack by Haider Ali:
Haider Ali was the Muslim ruler of Mysore, who invaded Srirangam in 1781, devastating territories en route. The inhabitants of the region sought refuge in the shrine, and locked themselves in, whereupon Haider Ali decided to destroy the temple altogether. However, his Brahmin officers intervened and averted the disaster.
1790 C.E.- The threat from Tippu Sultan:
Tippu, the son of Haider Ali, invaded the Carnatic in 1790 C.E. with his mammoth army, causing considerable havoc and destruction. He stationed his army in the temple for 6 days, and demanded 100000 gold pieces for his army from the temple authorities. The demand was refused, at which the Sultan turned wild. Fortunately however, Tippu had to flee for his own safety before he could wreak his vengeance upon the temple.
The instance below took place during the 'Carnatic Wars' (1743-1763) fought between the British and the French for the control of South India. Various Indian rulers also allied themselves along these two European rivals. In their mutual warfare, the Srirangam and the Jambukesvaram temples suffered a lot. Chanda Saheb allied with the French. Note that Chanda Saheb was the son in law of the Nawab of Arcot namely Dost Ali.
He took advantage of a civil war at Tiruchirapalli and imprisoned the Hindu queen Minaksi (1732-36) of the town, establishing his own rule there. Stung by the indignities heaped upon her by Chanda Saheb's men, the queen took poison and died in 1736. During his rule (1736-1740), Chanda Saheb harassed the temple authorities a lot and extracted large amounts of money from them as tribute, till he was vanquished by the invading Maratha forces in 1740.
"Writing in his diary under date 30 May 1752, Ananda Ranga Pillai, the well known dubash and courtier of Dupleix ( = the French Commander), states; 'Today I heard the following news. Of the troops at Srirangam with Chanda Saheb, M. Law, etc., only 300 troopers have received any pay for the last 6 months; the rest have no money to live on and have suffered much from the enemy's (= the British) blockade...They intended to have destroyed the Srirangam temple just as they destroyed the Jambukesvaram temple; but the temple people saved it for the present by giving them Rs. 60,000 and the grain stored there." (pg. 212)
When the British finally overcame the French, they invaded the Srirangam temple as well, but the 1000 Hindu Rajputs who worked for Chanda Saheb refused to allow the British to invade the temple and ruin its sanctity. Impressed by the bravery of the Rajputs, the British abandoned their attack on the Srirangam temple.
CONCLUSION: BARBARIANS AT THE GATE
We have come a long way from the Sack of Somantha, Srirangam & World Trade Centre and the lessons it hold for India & World community. This is the 1297th year of continual Jihads. Lest we forget Somanatha, Srirangam and World Trade Centre this narration is dedicated to the memory of millions of innocent Hindu, Buddhist, Jain Christian and Jew Victims of Islamic Jihads.
Sri Aurobindo once said If India fails world dies. The ancient spiritual civilization is facing great imminent threat from the strange nexus between Marxist-Media-Mullahs and Missionaries. Tibet was vanquished by China and HH Dalai Lama is in exile in Bharat, The last of the spiritual civilization is in India, while Tibet has been ripped. Strange but true will Hindus and Hinduism also face similar fate in India?
Again when I saw Mr.Obama wax eloquent on Islam, I wanted to write to him "Perhaps it would do some good to America and World, if Mr.Obama educate himself on Islam, especially after his Cairo address, in June 2009".
The Sanatana traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are in great danger of dying out in the next 50 years. These religions have managed to scrape though and survive after 1297 years of Jihads. Hindus must quickly unite, and tackle the situation in a war footing or else they will become exiled in their own land. The Tibetans had an India State, on which they could fall back, but Hindus have no place to go but jump into the oceans. Please refer to the attacks on Hindu Students in the summer 2009 in Australia and Canada. The years 2008 and 2009 are years of shame for Hindus and in particular for the BJP as it had a spectacular defeat. Now, Hindus must fight for protecting their land. They must aim for total liberation from internal enemies, like Media anarchists, who are well funded with petro money, US dollars and Chinese money. Hindus must come out in streets in large numbers and convey their feelings and be geared up, for immense sacrifice, after waiting for nearly 60 years since Independence; else they will become exiled in their own country. Where have all Hindus gone?
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References:
1) V. N. Hari Rao; History of the Srirangam Temple; Sri Venkareswara University; Tirupati; 1976
2) Vishal Agarwal (http://hinduholocaust.com/Articles/Srirangam.htm)
3) Koil Ozhughu A Comprehensive history of Srirangam temple, 13 Volumes. A.Krishnamachariyar.(Tamil2006,06,07,08,09)
4) Tasleema Nasreen wrote about the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh in her LAJJA), for which she has been hounded out of India.
5) Negationism In Indian History By Koenraad Elst.
6) A new history of India.Francois Gautier.
7) www.Democide.com
