Introduction
The Concept of an Indian Identity and Mindset continues...

That is the glorious Hindu tradition, the ethos
of compassion and co-option that is unparalleled in world history.

However, militant Islam and later crusading Christianity came to India, and aggressively challenged Hinduism. They seized power in
sequence and established their own state in India. But despite state patronage to the ensuing onslaught, plunder and victimisation,
those of Hindu faith could not be decimated, and Hinduism remained the theology of the vast Indian majority.

The true factual history is that defiant Hindus suffered persecution and economic deprivation during Islamic and Christian reigns, such as through differential taxation [e.g., jizia and zamindari land revenue appropriation] and plain brutality, but Hindus by and large refused to capitulate and convert. Even after almost a thousand years of such targeting by Muslims and Christian rulers, undivided India in 1947 was more than 75% Hindu. This was partly because of the victorious Vijayanagaram empire, the Sikh reign, and Mahratta kingdoms, and later the Freedom Movement, each inspired by sanyasis such as Sringeri Shankaracharya, Swami Ramdas, Guru Nanak, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, who by their preaching about the Hindu identity ensured that the flame of Hindu defiance never dimmed. It was also due to individual defiance of Hindus such as Rana Pratap, Rani Jhansi, Rani Bennur, Kattaboman and Netaji Subhas Bose. These icons are admired not because they led us to victory [in fact they were defeated or killed], or had found out a safe compromise [they did not], but because of their courage of conviction in the face of huge odds not to submit to tyranny. That courageous defiance is also a part of Hinduism’s glorious legacy. But those who capitulated like Raja Man Singh or Jai Chand or Pudukottai Raja, in order to live in pomp and grandeur are despised today by the people. These legacies need to form the mindset of the modern Hindu.

to be continued....

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)