The Monument's Men of India !
In the recently released and critically acclaimed movie "The Monuments Men" (pics courtesy columbia pictures) - director / actor - George Clooney (who plays Frank Stokes and is the leader of the army team put together to protect the art pieces being destructed by Nazi’s) peps up his team with this amazing dialogue -
"Culture is a way of life.. you can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground, and somehow they will still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, if you destroy their achievements then it is as if they never existed.”
India during the
Islamic invasion also suffered similar fate (albeit on a much larger scale) when ruthless Muslim invaders raided & looted
everything Hindu - from Hindu temples to
Hindu idols/sculptures to Villages & to Institution’s of Knowledge (Nalanda university / library is reported to have burned for three months after the Islamic invadersset fire to it)
Brave Hindus (both men
and women) provided an amazing resistance and fought bravely against
these heinous acts . From ordinary village folks to Kings and Queens of India had given up their
life for the protection of their Culture/History.
I call these people “The Monuments (wo)Men of India” !!.
As part of my recent
India trip in June 2014, We visited Somnath Temple. This Jyotirling
temple can probably go down in history as the ONLY religious place which has been attacked & destroyed the maximum times (17 times by Mahmud Ghazni alone).
Per the book written
by their own Islamic historian (Habibu-s Siyar by Khondamir) during one such raid at Somnath -
"Fifty thousand infidels (non Islamic - i.e Hindus) were killed round about the
temple who were trying to defend the temple".
One such act of
bravery is the amazing fight put up by Hamir Gohil who gave up his life in 14th
century defending the Somnath temple from the attack of Muzaffar Shah. On the path leading to the temple complex, you would find a huge statue of
Hamir Gohil, who attained martyrdom while defending the Somnath temple.
In current scenario the challenge is of different kind. In my
view Hindu’s (those who are not aware & unfortunately there are many) need
to first start knowing about the real history of India, pass on the Hindu
values/culture to their next generation thereby creating a proud
Hindu Generation - Next !!
It would be great if all these heroic events are taught in our school history classes as every Indian has the right to know the "correct" history of India.
It would be great if all these heroic events are taught in our school history classes as every Indian has the right to know the "correct" history of India.
Lastly please take out time and tell stories of these real
heroes to our kids, grand kids during bed time instead of handing them over an iPad / tablet.
P.S –
1) I came to know about Hamir
Gohil via an excellent Gujrati movie called “Veer Hamir” , which prompted me to
plan my visit to Somnath. Would love if it is made in Hindi as well (Dr ChandraPrakash Dwivedi comes to my mind :-) ).
2) In order to portray these real heroes of India - my cousin Pratik Parmar helped me to create the above photo
which you see at the top of this post. As there are many unknown people who
gave up their life - we have denoted it by the "unknown person with
question mark". Photo Courtesy - Mahee
Productions and Hindu Jagruti.
Bharat Mata ki Jay !!