Indian Defence Review

The inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on the 22^nd January 2023 marked the end of a national odyssey that lasted for many centuries and saw innumerable twists and turns. There were periods of sheer despair and dejection, as well as euphoria and jubilation. All this is water under the bridge. Bharat has crossed a civilisational landmark that had eluded it for centuries and now is the time to consolidate and move forward on a safe and well-defined trajectory.

It is also the time to reflect, not only on our experience but also on what other cultures and civilisations have endured, as they battled trauma and disaster to emerge triumphant. Other countries, too,have seen the light at the end of long and dark tunnels. In this essay, we will follow their experiences and find out how nations and civilisations, that had similar traumas like ours, successfully rediscovered their honour and elan.

In this essay, we will look at the specific trajectories that Greece and the Slavonic countries, including Russia, adopted and chose in their civilisational recovery path. Greece, the country that was the cradle of European culture, endured many centuries of brutal and savage occupation by the Ottoman Turks.  By the early 15^th century, the whole of mainland Greece and most of the Aegean islands had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The rule of the Ottomans saw a major migration of the Greek population. The intelligentsia moved to Western Europe, where it initiated the European Renaissance.

In occupied Greece, the Ottoman Turkish rulers were tyrannical and corrupt. Greeks were allowed to follow their Orthodox Christian faith, but under strict conditions. The parallels to India under Muslim / Mughal rule were many, including the savagery and brutality of the Islamic Turkish occupiers. The trauma of Greece lasted until the early 19th century. The first self-governing Hellenic state since the Middle Ages was established on the Ionian islands during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1800, twenty one  years before the outbreak of the Greek revolution in mainland Greece.

The Greeks managed to maintain their language and culture during centuries of Ottoman rule, because of a combination of factors, including the resilience of their cultural institutions and the presence of a distinct Greek national identity. One key factor was the existence of the Orthodox Church, which served as a unifying cultural and religious institution for Greeks. The Church was a major source of education and literacy for the Greek population, and it helped to preserve the Greek language and traditions through its liturgy and other religious practices.

The Greek national ethos was reinforced by the emergence of a Greek intelligentsia in the 18th and 19th centuries, which played a key role in the development of a modern Greek national consciousness.

The parallels to Bharat in the above scenario are clear and noticeable. The cultural and religious institutions of ancient Bharat permitted its patrimony to survive so many centuries of alien Islamic occupation. Similarly, Bharat and Greece had another point in common. In both the cases, the Islamic invaders did not control the entire country and many parts were not under their rule.

The Germanic / Teutonic invasions of Eastern Europe are the other examples of repeated attacks and invasions by an alien country that wanted to take over foreign lands. The Slavonic countries in Eastern Europe were continuous victims of Germanic forces for many centuries. The end to Germanic assaults on the Slavonic countries came at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, when the Polish-Lithuanian armies won a decisive victory over the Knights of the Teutonic Order. In Central and Eastern Europe, this is regarded as a triumph of the Slav people against the Germanic invaders.

Symbolism and its decisive influence did not end in the second decade of the 1400s. After the Battle of Stalingrad ended on the 2nd February 1943 with the surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus to the Soviet Red Army, Marshal Zhukov is reported to have said that the German nation and its aggressive psyche must never be allowed to forget this historic  battle.

In the Indian context, after nine centuries of Islamic and British invasion, we need to have a new elan and confidence. For far too long, we have wallowed in defensiveness and commemoration of defeats, losses and traumas. To have the rare instance of regaining a lost / captured / restored / usurped national icon is something we must celebrate. And we must do so with dignity and uprightness.

The Indian experience is unique and rare. Even after the departure of the occupiers and conquerors, we are left to deal with the 5^th Columnists. Some of these elements are open and flagrant in their refusal to countenance a confident, happy, strong and clear-visioned Bharat. Others keep their thoughts to themselves and act clandestinely. Both groups are equally malignant.

The so-called secularists are always pandering to Pan-Islamicism and they keep on overlooking the fact that Islam always targets the former when it gains political power.

Under these circumstances, the Ayodhya temple is a beacon for all of us. For some it is a matter of religious commitment; for others like this author, it is an issue of our civilisational and cultural roots and capabilities. In both cases, closure is important. This is because Bharat is far from attaining its natural and deserved position in the comity of nations. We can now concentrate on issues and tasks that are important for our country to reach (or regain) its natural and logical position.