HISTORY OF THE HINDU MAHASABHAOUR P4SsT Tt seems superfluous to dwell on the achievements of the Hindus in the History of nations. Lord Curzon h Indian who cannot be acensed of sympathy aspirations said in his address at the Delhi Durbar in 1901: “Powerful empires existed and flourished here, while the Englishmen were still wandering painted in the woods and while the British colonies were still x wilderness and a jungle. Indin has Joft a deeper mark on the history. the philosophy and religion of mankind, than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.” Prof. Max. Muller in his well-known book, “What India has to Teach us.” says, “If J were asked id has more fully dovolopest some of its choicest gifts; has thought most vunder what sky fhe fnmuat a doeply on the problems of life and has found solutions of some of them, which will deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kent, T should point to India; if I were to ask myself how we here in Europe may draw the corrective which ix most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more universal, in fact more traly homan, again 1 should point to India”4 In fact, the Hindus were not only the earliest people who developed a high type of civilisation and disseminated it to the various parts of this earth but were the first great colonisers of the world. There is enough evidence to show that they colonised Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece and on the other side they spread so far as the Phillipine Islands. In spite of the destructive march of the Mohamma- dan conquest and propaganda, Hindu influence is traceable in Arabian lands, in Persia, in Afghanistan, ‘The buried cities and villages in Central Asia deserts are yielding proofs of Hinduism in those centres of population, now depopulated. Tibet, China, Corea, and Japan were greatly indebted to Hindusthan. ‘The literature extant in Java and Bali was born of Hindu influence and relates to the Sanskrit epics and the Parans. ‘The Hindus had thus, in fact, attained the high position of Jagatguru. From such heights they fell into the depths of slavery and foreign subjection. ‘The fall was really # terrible fall. During these days of alien rule, the history of Hindusthan, is @ tragic account of Hindus, slain, of the intolerant measures, of the temples razed, and mutilated, of forcible conversions and marriages, of proscriptions and confiscations, of murders, massacres and of the sensuality and drunkenness of the tyrante who enjoyed them.8 OUR VIRILITY ‘We faced all those national disasters. How nicely Swatantrya-vir Bar, V. D. Savarker, in his presidential address at Ahmedabad Session summarises the situa- tion, saying, “But each time we rose and tided them over. The Greeks under Alexander, the great, came conquering the world but they could not conquer Hindusthan, Chandragupta rose and we drove the Grecks back inflieting crushing defeats on them, military and cultural, ‘Three centuries after, the Huns came on us like an avalanche. AM Europe and half Asia lay at their feet. ‘They smashed the Roman Empire to pieces. But after some two centuries of a life and death struggle against them we vanquished them in the end under our Vikramaditya, the Great. ‘The Shakns also fared no better. The mighty hands of Shalivahan and Yashodharman beat them a chip. ‘Where are those of our enemies—the Huns and the Parthians and the Shakas—today ? Their very names are forgotten! Gone, effaced from the face of Hindus- than and the world as well. The virility and the ing out power of our race triumphed over them all. ‘Then centuries after Mahommedans invaded Hindusthan and carried everything before them. Their Kingdoms and Empires seemed to reign supreme ! ‘Though Hindus were divided and disintegrated,suffered defeats and courted Inumilintions but for full six hundred years throughout the Muslim ascendancy ‘they carried on a life and death strugule to regain their national honour and glory. At last the Sikh sword in the North, Maratthas in the South and the Rajputs in the Central Hindusthan completely shatter- ed the Moghal Empire and re-established Hind sway all over Hindusthan right up to the bank of Attak, Veer Savarkar further goes on to say, “But we rallied again and eversince the day that Shivajee was born, the God of War has sided with us. Battle after battle we beat the Moslems in a hundred fields, their Kingcloms and Empires, their Nawabs and Shahias and Brdshahas were brought to their knees by our warriors till at Inst Bhausahib, the Commander-in-Chief of the Hindus, as if symbolically raised his Hammer and literally smash- ed the very Imperial throne of the Moghals at Delhi to pieces; Mahadajee Shinde held the imbecile Maghal ‘Emperors as prisoners and pensioners in his custody aud Hindu supremacy was once more re-established all over the Ind.” In the meanwhile, before we could recover from the struggle of centuries with Moslems, the English faced us and won on all points. We could not even find time to consolidate what we had heroically snatched from the Muslims’ hands, We fell an easy pray tothe British sword. Rut. not long afterwards.‘once ayain the people of Hindusthan rose against the British Domination, This time they suffered a heavy defeat and Hindusthan wont completely under the British sway. ADVENT OF CONGRESS The British brought with them the Western system of Government, and an alien faith im the form of Christianity. ‘They opened schools and colleges to impart education which was meant to enslave the very convietions of our people. This all resulted in comp- lote Wostornization of Hindusthanees. But all this could not check the growing national consciousness of our people and a sort of dis-satisfaction was assuming the form of an under current in the political future of Hindusthan, At this moment, the British contrived another trap. the secret of which Mr. Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress revealed to Lord Auckland Colvin ina letter thus, “A safety-valve for the escape of great and growing forces, generated by the British connexion was urgently needed and no more efficacious valve than the Congress could be devised.” The few select:persons who undertook to guide the political destiny of Hindusthan at that time, had very little knowledge and experience of the antecedents and inclinations of different peoples biting the eountry and like the old-world. philorphers ha8 of Groece, they first fixed upon @ political theory of building up a now nation out of the heterogeneous ments to be found here, and then thought of setting, up machinery to carry that theory into practice. ‘The ideal of a new nationalism was set up before the country; and the newly crested educated class and the newly established press were made its advocates. For the last fifty years and more, this ideal of nations ism has boen moving the whole country and has been ‘our most cherished possession. Our one aim has, there- fore, been to form ourselves into a nation, fit to take charge of and control our destinies. The new political theory looked very bright and very attractive at first. ‘Tho spirit of nationalism had grown up in European countries, and had been working wonders for the last two or three centuries in the creation of new nations of Europe. Noturally we were led to think why we could not become a nation like those of Europe. ‘Where do we stand after a continuous Inbour of more than fifty years? All the efforts of the Congress school of political thought have ended in utter failure, and. _the present does not hold out any better promise for the future. We have not succeeded in reaching our goal, as yet and it is even today as farther away from us as over. On the contrary, the stato of affairs, we find ourselves in, at present, is subs- tentially. much worse than what it was, when we firedbegan to march on the road of nationalism. At one time we hugged the illusion that we were to reach our goal soon, but the next moment we were made to feel that our destination was as remoto as ever, and that all our race had been in vain, TWO PROPHECIES Even in 1909, men like R. B. Lala Lal Chand in the Punjab and Lt. Col. U. N. Mukerji in the Bengal after witnessing the activities of the Indian National Congress even for @ period of about fifteen years, ‘came to these bitter but correct conclusions, “My objections against the Congress,” observes R. B. L. Lal Chand, however, are of a different hue. In the first place—and this is the strongest and-most_ serious ‘objection—the Congress proceeded on a wrong assump- tiou of a united nation. ‘The result was that it entirely iguored the Hindu aspect of public aud political, ques- tions. This fallacy was taken advantage of by ,the other community to press their vantage point, and, in the end the Hindus Jost heavily, ‘They incurred the whole odium for the distasteful work from the Govern- ment poiut of view, and when the time eame for rewarding the labours a little, the substantial portion of the reward was assigned to the other community. Not only this, but they were given a political import- anon which they never possessed afore, while Hindus