Prologue continues.....

The inexorable march of time brought about momentous changes in the history of India. Empires rose and fell. Invading armies from foreign countries marched victoriously through this land many times and the people had to pay a heavy price in terms of life and property.

The invaders who came to India before the Christian era – like the Sakas, the Kushanas and even the Huns – set up their empires and gradually got Indianized. Alexander the Great went back leaving some of his commanders and troops here and they in course of time mingled with the Indian people and became a part of the Indian milieu.

The invasions that began at the end of the first millennium of the Christian era led to a long period of subjugation of the Indian people. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (a place in Afghanistan) is remembered as a

bloodthirsty, ruthless invader who slaughtered the hapless people of India. Alberuni, a scholar and a contemporary of Mahmud, writes:

“The Hindus became like the atoms of dust scattered in all directions and like a tale of old in the mouths of people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims.”

His raid on the Somnath temple in Gujarat was the darkest chapter of his invasion. The raid was meant to loot the invaluable treasure in the temple and also to deal a blow to the Hindu faith. Mahmud tried to spread Islam with the might of his sword. The reaction it created was immense. Nehruwrites in The Discovery of India:

“These repeated invasions from the North-West brought many new elements into India’s closed thought and economy.

Above all they brought Islam, for the first time, to the accompaniment of ruthless military conquest. So far, for over 300 years, Islam had come peacefully as a religion and taken its place among the many religions of India without trouble or conflict. There was no objection to a new religion but there was strong objection to anything which forcibly interfered with

and upset their way of life.

To be continued...