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

the brave Daheer, the one offered by the valiant Jayapal or his son Anangpal or the last battle given by Veer Prithviraj or again the one fought by Maharana Sanga, in every decisive action fought throughout, through all these centuries up to that fought in 1565 A.D. at Talikot by the dauntless Ramraja of Vijaynagar the scales of war turned always against the Hindus —the Hindus alone were unmistakably defeated! But since the beginning of the 17th Century 1019. That means from the birth of Shivaji, so to say, the same cruel Goddess of War began to show a highly astonishing difference in her verdict regarding the same Hindu-Muslim struggle. And it was this! Just as formerly, it seemed almost predetermined that the Hindus were bound to be defeated in every Hindu-Muslim struggle, similarly now onwards, wherever the Hindu-Muslim armies met, the Hindu victory was almost assured and the Muslim defeat a foregone conclusion! From this seventeenth century onwards, wherever they met the Muslims in a state of war, the Hindus invariably vanquished them! Whether they were the decisive battles shaking the very foundations of states or nations or whether they were only fleeting skirmishes, the victory for the Hindus and the rout of the Muslims was the result! Every Hindu young man should necessarily read the long list of Hindu victories from the same book of mine viz: Hindu Padpadshahi, the victories which swell our hearts with pride, the victories again that were won not only on land from Punjab to Kanyakumari in the south seas but in hundreds of naval engagements from the Western (the so-called Arabian sea!) to the Eastern (the Bay of Bengal) seas! The guiding principle of the new Maratha strategy—Aggression—not merely defence 1020. The most important reason why since the time the Marathas assumed the military leadership of the Hindu nation, the Hindus alone went on winning victories, as has been already shown above, all over the vast subcontinent of India whenever they joined battle with the Muslims, was that these Marathas with their daring valour, had at once purged the Hindu mind of that pernicious epidemic of the perverted sense of virtues, which had afflicted and paralysed most of the Hindu society all over India and which had given birth to the false notion of chivalry, deeming it highly despicable from the ethical point of view, a veritable sin, as it were to lead a military attack—even against the direst enemy.