भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

routed the enemy. These nations, with a long tradition of thousands of years, are naturally proud of many such glorious moments recording their signal victories over their enemies. The history of India, as compared to that of other nations, has a consistent and unbroken record. Most of the nations that nourished side by side with her in the past, are now extinct and are remembered only by their names. China stands today as an old witness of the greatness of India. 9. Both China and India are vast countries and have maintained their independence and power right from the ancient days. No wonder they had to face many more mortal dangers of foreign domination than the other shortlived nations. The unerring wheel of fortune affected them too. Just as India was attacked by the Sakas, the Huns, the Mughals and others, so was China too a victim of the invasions of these and other alien nations. She had to build the world-famous China Wall all around her territory as a bulwark against the Hunnish inroads. Nevertheless, the enemies did conquer China, sometimes by circumventing the great wall or at times, crossing it. Mostly only in parts, but sometimes at least, wholly, China had to writhe and squirm under the yoke of foreign domination. Yet, every time, she could revive her strength and overthrow the foreign aggression and regain her independence, and even today, she is an independent and powerful nation. This in itself is a marvel of history. An appraisal of Indian history demands the same criterion to be adopted. But specially when our country was smarting under the British sway, many English writers had so much perverted the Indian history and obliged two or three generations of Indian students in their schools and colleges to learn it in such a way, that not only the rest of the world, but even our own people were misled. Absurd and malicious statements implying that India as a nation has always been under some foreign rule or the other or that Indian history is an unbroken chain of defeat after defeat of the Hindus, have been used like currency and are accepted by our people without affront or remonstrance or even a formal protest. To refute these statements is essential not only from the point of view of the honour of the nation, but also for the sake of historical truth. Efforts being made by other historians in this direction have to be supported, as far as possible, by propaganda. That in itself is a national duty. That is why, I have decided here to describe the historical achievements of those generations and of their representative leaders who vanquished the aggressors from time-to-time and liberated their country.