Kasmira, revered in the Mahābhārata, has long stood as a cradle of civilization and tapasya in northern India. The name Kasmira is believed to trace its origin to the Vedic Rishi Kasyapa. Legend has it that he once drained a lake in the northern reaches of India, and the area became known as Kasyapa Mir. This region is today the scenic region of Kashmir.[2]
The recent attack by Islamic religious fanatics on unarmed civilians, spending their vacations in Kashmir, Rishi Kasyapa’s land is indeed ‘Nth attack’ on adherents of Sanatana Dharma in the land of their origin. Their modus operandi leaves no doubt about the religious nature of attack. If I may call out the hyena-like ambush of unarmed civilians by religious bigots,revealing their medieval mindsets, in segregating Kafirs from believers in Pahalgam. It involved segregation of Hindus by checking their identity papers, Hindu men subjected to physical inspection of their private parts for proof of adherence to religious practise, and shot dead in front of their families by barbarians.Their fault being Hindus.
This episode made me revisit the account of Indian History recorded by an American researcher and author, Will Durant in his well known book ‘The Story of Civilisation.’ The attack wrapped in political silk failed to hide the stench of religious hate emanating from across the borders for nearly a thousand years. The repeated attacks gradually changed the religious demography and shrunk the borders of India gradually.
Some of the details regarding the brutality inflicted on the Sanatana Dharma adherents as narrated in ‘The Story of Civilisation’ are extracted below to give a historical perspective. Which affirms that what happened in Pahalgam is not the first such attack, much less a political movement based on Kashmiri identity, but a continuum of sustained onslaught over generations, denying the people of this land their basic right to live and practise their faith. According to Will Durant, the beginning of the saga began in the year 997 A.D.[3]
- “The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history.”[4]
- Mahmud of Ghazni – “Pretending a holy zeal for destroying Hindu idolatry, he swept across the frontier with a force inspired by a pious aspiration for booty. He met the unprepared Hindus at Bhimnagar, slaughtered them, pillaged their cities, destroyed their temples and carried away the accumulated treasures of centuries.”[5]
- “Kutb-d Din Aibak, was a normal specimen of his kind-fanatical, ferocious and merciless. .. Mohammedan historians tell us, ….his slaughters likewise were by hundreds of thousands.”[6]
- “Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak acquired the throne by murdering his father. ..He killed so many Hindus that, in the words of a Moslem historian, “there was constantly in front of his royal pavilion and his Civil Court a mound of dead bodies and a heap of corpses..””[7]
- “Firoz Shah, invaded Bengal, offered a reward for every Hindu head, paid for 180,000 of them,..”[8]
- “Sultan Ahmad Shah feasted for three days whenever the number of defenceless Hindus slain in his territories in one day reached twenty thousand.”[9]
- “Their terrorism and exploitation advanced that weakening of Hindu physique and morale”[10]
- “Alau-d-din, who required his advisers to draw up “rules and regulations for grinding down the Hindus, and for depriving them of that wealth and property which fosters disaffection and rebellion.”[11]
- “Alau-d-din answered:“..the Hindus will never become submissive and obedient till they are reduced to poverty.””[12]
Will Durant concludes this episode with a piece of advice , “A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry.”[13]
The saga of religious fanaticism continues unabated till date. The Kashmiri Pandits have been telling the world about the pogrom executed in 1990 to redeem the land of Kafirs, which made them refugees in their own country. Their voices were not taken seriously and in fact some wokes degraded themselves by calling the human tragedy as propaganda. Ironically the people earning a living as human rights entrepreneurs sought to woke-wash the pain and angst of Kashmiri Pandits, exposing their rusted sensibilities.
The facts which have emerged from firsthand accounts of victims of Pahalgam pogrom who survived leave no doubt that they were left alive to live in trauma and tell the rest of the world what they lived through. This appears to be a well thought out strategy to send fear into the psyche of those who are objects of this religious bigotry. It was a clear threat to entire humanity.
One cannot but ask oneself if we are dealing with normal human beings or religious bigots acting like zombies who cannot think rationally, consumed by hate indoctrinated into them? Can these barbarians who appear like humans be dealt with like humans at all? It is indeed appropriate to refer to the barbarians as evil simpliciter, leaving no doubt in our minds that they are bound to cause harm as hate against humanity is their primary and only nature.
India has known evil through its itihasas which teach us how to deal with such evil. The Islamic terrorists as well as their overground workers in Politics/Media/NGOs ought to be seen as akin to Asuras/Daityas/Danavas referred to in our itihasas. The need to identify the perpetrators and their support ecosystems is very important so as not to let misplaced sympathies or hope of reform delude us. In a land which is the birth place of Karma philosophy, it is Karma which defines the destiny of a person. Brutal killing of people because of their faith can’t be a passport to heaven, much less meet approval of the Creator.
It’s time to recall our own itihasas which have consistently taught us to adhere to the path of Dharma, but if need be not to shy away from destroying evil by recourse to violent force. One only has to recall the hateful Sisupala, cousin of Sri Krishna, who persisted with impertinent behaviour against Sri Krishna and was pardoned for 100 faults, only to be beheaded for the 101s t mistake.
Similarly even Pandavas suffered immensely at the hands of their cousins Kauravas for years, but eventually did recourse to the epic war of Kurukshetra and decimated all their cousins along with all those who fought on their side, inspired by Sri Krishna’s teachings in the Gita.
Bharata Varsha, as the world’s oldest living civilisation guided by Sanatana Dharma has never degraded other faiths nor sought to decimate faiths which unabashedly sought to take recourse to genocides by labelling Sanatana followers as adherents of false gods. However, as can be seen from the history of religious hate over 1000 years, Sanatana has always been firmly rooted in Dharma and Satya – for Sanatana Dharma is a way of life, unlike an ideological start up which only propagated equality but created a class of champagne socialists who were more equal, and eventually failed even in their captive markets.
The issue is not confined to Pahalgam or Kashmir but is as much a challenge in all border states where Islamic theocracies were carved out ceding to the two-nation theory. The two nation theory has resulted into three nations now with Pakistan breaking down and creation of Bangladesh – both virulently Islamic states on Western and Eastern borders of India. Off late, they have come together bonded by their common hate for Hindus who believed they would be treated equally in Pakistan as promised at the time of Partition in 1947, as also in 1971 when Bangladesh was liberated by the Indian Army from Pakistan.
What transpired in 1971 with Hindus in East Pakistan qualified as Hindu genocide, though larger hate was against intellectual Bengalis from all communities who opposed the tyranny of Pakistan’s martial law. In this regard it would be useful to read the following,
“There is overwhelming evidence that Hindus were slaughtered and their houses and villages destroyed simply because they were Hindus. The oft repeated phrase ‘Hindus are enemies of the state’ as a justification for the killing does not gainsay the intent to commit genocide; rather does it confirm the intention. The Nazis regarded the Jews as enemies of the state and killed them as such. In our view, there is a strong prima facie case that the crime of genocide was committed against the group comprising the Hindu population of East Bengal.”[14]
Be it 997 AD or Murshidabad in West Bengal or Pahalgam in Kashmir Valley in 2025, one thing persists, i.e., religious bigotry targeting practitioners of Sanatana Dharma in its own home. The modern day Dhritarashtras’ who preach peace to the peaceful, while canvassing for protecting the human rights of the terrorists should remember that India is not only the land of Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi who preached peace and nonviolence, but also the land which worships valour of Sri Rama, Sri Krishna and Maa Kaali. The decimation of those who belittle the creator by spreading violence in his name by recourse to dharma himsa/righteous violence for the larger good of humanity is an essential part of our civilisational wisdom. Evil cousins across the borders who choose the path of evil by inflicting undue suffering on those who believe in higher human pursuits, have to be dealt with as Pandavas guided by Sri Krishan did, though reluctantly.
[1] Senior Advocate and Author of Maxims from Mahabharata
[2]https://www.keralatourism.org/ayurveda/history/mythology-origin/sages/kashyapa
[3] The Story of Civilisation, Vol.I Our Oriental Heritage, Ch. VI. The Moslem Conquest, pg.460
[4]The Story of Civilisation, Vol.I Our Oriental Heritage, Ch. VI. The Moslem Conquest, pg.459
[5] Ibid 460
[6]Ibid.461
[7] Ibid.461
[8] Ibid.461
[9] Ibid.461
[10] Ibid.461
[11] Ibid.462
[12] Ibid.462
[13] Ibid.462
[14]East Pakistan Staff Study,, International Commission of Jurists No.8 June 1972
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