India too was victim of similar barbarian invaders, like that of advanced civilization of Rome suffered from. The fact that Indian civilization survived and that of Rome collapsed should not be a matter of comfort leading to 'complacency' as the Naill Ferguson, historian, author of following article said with regards to Roman civilization.
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A Vijayanagar relic
G V Chelvapilla
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."
Aldous Huxley
Europe too subscribes to monotheism , which has similar history of persecution like the other monotheistic faith now attacking it. Ramaswarup calls this theology as 'monolatry', worhip of one god, only their's is true , others are false which hints at polytheism-true gods vs false gods of unbelievers. Where as seemingly polytheistic but in essence upholding E Pluribus unum- out of many one, the all pervading infinite being manifest in different forms, the Hinduism shines with spiritual oneness which is an existing truth-Satyam of Veda . Theology and philosophy subscribed to by a society, a nation are very important. Because they determine collective behaviour of the people.
India faced clash with monotheists and paid a heavy price. Now what is left or preserved no doubt very significant, should not be allowed to fall again to same forces that wiped out Hinduism in areas they grabbed.
It is because of majority of India being Hindu, hence the world view and philosophies of India are different from monolatry , leading to harmony rather than to violent suppression of other faiths, Jews , Zorastrians in the remote past and Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhists in recent past sought shelter in Hindu majority India, rather than go to Islamic Pakistan.
Here is what Swami Vivekananda said ;
- I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."[Source]
Such benevolent universal , catholic Hinduism need not only to be preserved but also should expand.Again our Swami Vivekananda said expansion if life, contraction is death. Hinduism has been shrinking for more than a millennium. This process should be halted. Expansion also should take place.
There is great deal of disillusionment among those who left succumbing to force or fraud. Yet still they do not have freedom to return . This is due to lack of 'level playing field'. All sorts of spurious outrage at 'Ghar Wapsi' got vehemently expressed while conversions away from Hinduism were condoned, nay encouraged even.
Regardless the nascent movement of 'Ghar wapsi' ( returning home) should continue for the sake of bright future for India and for people of India . As to the loud mouthed objectors against this process, they should realize what is good for gander is good for goose also. If conversions to Islam and Christianity are Kosher or halal (acceptable), for converts to return home also should be equally acceptable . India is land of religious freedom. As such Hindus also have some rights and privileges.
Home coming is not a new phenomenon in history of India. In fact shaped history positively. Last great Hindu Kingdom that wrote a golden chapter in history of India , existed just 600 years back in Vijayanagar. It was established by Harihara and Bukka Rayas. They were once converted to Islam by Allauddin Khilji . When Allauddin Khilji was defeated and taken prisoner by Kumbha Rana (predecessor of Rana Pratap) at battle of Sangli, Swami Vidyaranya of Sringeri peeth, brought them back to Hinduism and on the banks of Tungabadra river they laid foundation to Vijayanangar. Will Durant tells us in his story of civilization some of the discoveries in medical science and other fields scholars of Vijayanagar contributed as well as its opulence .
A Vijayanagar relicIt may be noted , in spite of self assumed and secular attributed virtues none of the invaders brought any thing of value to India. Instead for all sorts of freebooters India became a chosen destination for enormous indeed were riches of India. Robert Clive expressed surprise at his modesty, because even after looting to his heart content , he still could not carry all the loot, hence had to leave much behind.
The people and culture ,the ingredients required that produced prosperity and opulence are still there. India's civilization though wounded , is still there and making good progress with Hindu nationalists at the helm. So both renaissance and bright future are eminently possible and could be realized. Not only people of India but also other nations both east and west their leaders have realized the importance of ascendancy of India and have said so in many ways.
Indian civilization differs from European . Europe knew about elimination. India's forte is in assimilation as well as unity in diversity, a principle no where else is better practiced than in Hindu India. For building a better future not only for India but for the sake of world civilization hence Hindu values, world view, outlook should become wide spread which in turn will lead to harmony, prosperity and all round happiness.
Shreyo bhuyat Sakals Jananam.
Best wishes,
"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."
Aldous Huxley
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Paris and the fall of Rome
Niall Ferguson
16 November 2015
I am not going to repeat what you have already read or heard.
I am not going to say that what happened in Parison Friday night was unprecedented horror, for it was not.
I am not going to say that the world stands with France, for it is a hollow phrase.
Nor am I going to applaud President Hollande’s pledge of “pitiless” vengeance, for I do not believe it.
I am, instead, going to tell you that this is exactly how civilizations fall.
Here is how Edward Gibbon described the Goths’ sack of Rome in August 410 AD:
“In the hour of savage license, when every passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed . . . a cruel slaughter was made of the Romans; and . . . the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies . . . Whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless . . .”
Now, does that not describe the scenes we witnessed in Paris on Friday night?
True, Gibbon’s “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’’ represented Rome’s demise as a slow burn over a millennium.
But a new generation of historians, such as Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather, has raised the possibility that the process of Roman decline was in fact sudden — and bloody —rather than smooth: a “violent seizure . . . by barbarian invaders” that destroyed a complex civilization within the span of a single generation.
Uncannily similar processes are destroying the European Union today, though few of us want to recognize them for what they are.
Let us be clear about what is happening.
Like the Roman Empire in the early fifth century, Europe has allowed its defenses to crumble.
As its wealth has grown, so its military prowess has shrunk, along with its self-belief.
It has grown decadent in its shopping malls and sports stadiums. At the same time, it has opened its gates to outsiders who have coveted its wealth without renouncing their ancestral faith.
The distant shock to this weakened edifice has been the Syrian civil war, though it has been a catalyst as much as a direct cause for the great Völkerwanderung of 2015.
As before, they have come from all over the imperial periphery — from North Africa, from the Levant, from South Asia — but this time they have come in their millions.
To be sure, most have come hoping only for a better life.
Things in their own countries have become just good enough economically for them to afford to leave and just bad enough politically for them to risk leaving.
But they cannot stream northward and westward without some of that political malaise coming along with them.
As Gibbon saw, convinced monotheists pose a grave threat to a secular empire.
It is conventional to say that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Europe are not violent, and that is doubtless true.
But it is also true that the majority of Muslims in Europe hold views that are not easily reconciled with the principles of our modern liberal democracies, including those novel notions we have about equality between the sexes and tolerance not merely of religious diversity but of nearly all sexual proclivities.
And it is thus remarkably easy for a violent minority to acquire their weapons and prepare their assaults on civilization within these avowedly peace-loving communities.
I do not know enough about the fifth century to be able to quote Romans who described each new act of barbarism as unprecedented, even when it had happened multiple times before; or who issued pious calls for solidarity after the fall of Rome, even when standing together in fact meant falling together; or who issued empty threats of pitiless revenge, even when all they intended to do was to strike a melodramatic pose.
I do know that 21st-century Europe has only itself to blame for the mess it is now in.
For surely nowhere in the world has devoted more resources to the study of history than modern Europe.
When I went up to Oxford more than 30 years ago, it was taken for granted that in the first term of my first year I would study Gibbon.
It did no good.
We learned nothing that mattered.
Indeed, we learned a lot of nonsense to the effect that nationalism was a bad thing, nation-states worse, and empires the worst things of all.
“Romans before the fall,” wrote Ward-Perkins in his “Fall of Rome,” “were as certain as we are today that their world would continue for ever substantially unchanged. They were wrong. We would be wise not to repeat their complacency.”
Poor, poor Paris.
Killed by complacency.
Niall Ferguson is professor of history at Harvard University, a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution and author of “Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist.’’