30 Mar , 2015
“India should not forget its history,” Bhutto observed on the eve of the India-Pakistan conflict in 1950. Indeed, India has a sad history of centuries of subjugation imposed by the power of the sword. The invaders came, both across the land frontiers and the sea, and each time, however stout the defence, Indian armies were crushed. The successive wars were lost not because our armies lacked numbers and mounts or heavier armaments. The reasons lay elsewhere. In fact, India wielded heavier forces, but so wedded was it to the past and outmoded military concepts that the invaders brought to play the unexpected to outwit its generals, and always won decisively. Superior leadership and stratagem triumphed. India has certainly a lot to learn from its military history.
History becomes a nation’s mirror. To find flaws so as to remedy them, the nation should have the courage to look into the mirror. There should be courage to accept the reflection, however grotesque. It is only then that the progressive path towards improvement can be sought. But then the mirror must be true, free of distortion and flattering magnification. Likewise, history, if it is to serve as the nation’s mirror, has to be truthful and objective.
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