There is common perception that Hindus are cowards and Muslims are brave.  Even Mahatma Gandhi went on to write: "Hindu is a coward and a Muslim a bully by nature."

This perception mostly results from the fact that a small number of Muslims were able to defeat the Hindus and rule over them for centuries.

If one were to analyze the underlying causes that led to the defeat of the Hindus, there is no evidence to suggest that the Hindu is coward -- Hindus just have different ideology -- a different set of priorities and ideas about nature of things.

Hindu defeats were more intellectual and cultural. Muslims brought a new ideology and a new kind of warfare to India -- one that at first the Hindus did not understand. And today when they fully understand it, they are not willing to adopt it.

 The Hindu mind regarding "religious" warfare was first expressed by none else than Alberuni, a scholar in Greek, Farsi and Arabic and an astronomer in his own right, who came to India with Mahmud Ghaznavi, stayed in India, learnt Sanskrit, read extensively all Hindu literature, wrote 20 books including translations on India. In his still available book Indica, he went on to observe:

 "On the whole, there is very little disputing about theological topics among themselves; at the utmost they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious controversy."

Hindus believed in open discussion of theological topics but did not kill each other for their opinions and they could not understand why would one kill others for differing on matter of theology or imposing their own ideas on others.

Almost thousand years later, talking of the betrayal of king Dahir of Debal, V S Naipaul went on to explain the Hindus' reaction to Muslim invasions in the following words:

 "It is the first of the betrayals that will assist the Arab conquest. But they are not betrayals, really. They are no more than the actions of people who understand only that power is power, and believe they are changing rulers; they cannot conceive that a new way is about to come."

Last update : 10-01-2010 18:04

Keywords : On Hindu Cowardice and Muslim Bravery, Vinod Kumar

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