Nearly a millennium back, the year was not 2009, it was 1174, the attackers were not Lashkar-e-Toiba, but Jihadis nevertheless from the Ghurid clan. The method of attack did not involve suicide bombers in Islamabad, or terror squads in Lahore, but the cities of Mulasthana (Multan) and Sakala (Sialkot) and Purushapura (Peshwar) as also Suvastu (Swat) were being attacked by bands of roving Ghurid Jihadis who went about destroying Hindu temples and murdering innocent villagers in Punjab. Those being attacked were  not Pakistanis, but the Hindus of what is today West Punjab, the rulers were Muslims even then - they were the Ghaznavid rulers who descended from Mahmud of Ghazni. These Ghaznavids were Muslims and they had to battle another invading Muslim clan that was coming towards India from Afghanistan.

The situation was uncannily similar to that which is developing today.

Those being attacked today in Pakistan are the Muslims of Punjab (soon attacks on Sindh will follow in Karachi). Those who are attacking these Muslims are also Muslims. Today the attackers have come to Swat, as one thousand years back they came to Suvastu in the year 1174. They had then overturned another Muslim dynasty that had occupied Punjab from 1030 up to 1174. This is exactly what is happening today, when bands of Talibani brigands are trying to overthrow the Muslim regime of Pakistan established in 1947, by attacking it. The theatre of these events in 2009 is also the same as in the year 1174.

Today the Pakistani military is using Helicopter gunships to kill the Taliban who refuse to vacate Swat. The Taliban have refused to lay down their arms, but have very ceremoniously withdrawn from Buner. The Taliban withdrawal should remind us of their withdrawal from the outskirts of Kabul, when they met with resistance from the Rabbani Government in the 1990s.The Taliban withdrew when it saw that it could not prevail against the superior military power of the Rabbani government backed by Ahmad Shah Massod and Rashid Dostam. But the Taliban did not give up. They regrouped and attacked once again, this time occupying Kabul and followed up this victory by occupying almost all of Afghanistan. In India too we should remember, that the Hindus defeated the Muslims at Bahraich in 1033, and at Mount Abu in 1188 and again at Tarain in 1191. Despite these setbacks for the Muslims, they did not give up, but regrouped and attacked India over and over again, finally capturing Delhi in 1192 (Mohammed Ghori) and reaching Kanya Kumari in 1326 (Malik Kafur).

Last update : 20-05-2009 11:50

Keywords : Can Hindus Learn from History?, Anil Ketkar

Average user rating

   (0 vote)