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Straight Talk | Bharat’s ‘Original Sin’: Partition Was Not Freedom, But Civilisational Betrayal

17 0
14.08.2025

For thousands of years, Bharat had stood as an unbroken testament to civilisational resistance. This was the land where Prithviraj Chauhan fought seventeen battles against Muhammad Ghori, capturing and releasing him repeatedly rather than executing an unarmed enemy – only to pay the ultimate price for his adherence to dharmic principles. This was the soil where Maharana Pratap chose a lifetime of guerrilla warfare in the Aravalli hills rather than bow before Akbar, declaring through his very defiance that “Mewar would rather die than submit". This was the land where Guru Gobind Singh and his 40 Sikhs put up their last stand against lakhs of Mughal marauders at Chamkaur Sahib.

It was also here that Chhatrapati Shivaji carved out Hindu Swarajya from the heart of Mughal-dominated Deccan – showing that indigenous dharmic rule was not just possible but essential. These warriors understood what their descendants forgot in 1947: that Bharat was not merely a piece of real estate to be divided among competing claims, but a sacred geography consecrated by the blood of countless martyrs who chose death over dishonour.

The heroes of Bharat’s past would have been bewildered by the events of 1947. For centuries, they had held a simple truth: the motherland was indivisible, not because of political convenience but because of spiritual principle. When Rani Padmini chose jauhar over surrender at Chittorgarh, when fifty thousand defenders died at Somnath rather than abandon their sacred duty, when Bhagat Singh walked to the gallows declaring “Inquilab Zindabad," they were asserting a fundamental belief that some things are worth more than life itself – and the unity of Bharat was foremost among them.

The cruel irony of partition is that it was agreed to by a generation that had produced some of India’s greatest sons. Gandhi, who had inspired millions around the world with his principle of ahimsa and satyagraha, ultimately acquiesced to a solution that guaranteed unprecedented violence. Nehru, the “architect" of modern India, accepted the........

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