17-Oct-2019: "Guptvanshak Veer: Skandagupta Vikramaditya"

Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri Amit Shah addressed a seminar: Guptvanshak Veer: Skandagupta Vikramaditya at BHU, Varanasi. Also present on the occasion were the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Shri Shah remembered the founder of BHU, Shri Madan Mohan Malviya and said that his legacy and the legacy of India’s glorious culture was kept alive by the institution. He emphasized upon the importance of educational institutions in preserving and promoting the culture of a society.

Noting India’s rich cultural and political growth under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, Shri Shah remembered the contribution of both dynasties in ensuring the political stability of India. He remarked upon the role played by Gupta empire in the unification of India in ancient times.

Hailing the Gupta Era under Samudragupta as the Golden Era of India, Shri Shah said that the boundaries of India under Samudragupta stretched the entire length of the subcontinent in his time. He added that in every field from art and architecture to trade and literature, India had achieved the pinnacle of civilization in the Gupta Era. Shri Shah called for recognizing the contribution of Skandagupta in making the Indian culture reach its zenith. He also remembered the battle campaign waged by Skandagupta against Hun invaders, and said that Skandagupta was one of the few warrior kings to have defeated Huns.

Shri Shah hailed Skandagupta as not only a great warrior, but also a skilled administrator. He said that in spite of having saved the nation from invaders, and having freed the region around Kashmir, history has not registered the contributions of Skandagupta or given him his due. He said that the responsibility to correct this lies with the present society. He called for the chronicling of history from the standpoint of Indian culture. He gave the example of Veer Savarkar, who was the first to have referred to the 1857 rebellion as the First War of India’s Independence, and called for more such efforts to ensure the writing of history from a nationalistic perspective.

Shri Shah said that under the vision and leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India has once again achieved prestige and respect on the global stage. He said that now India, as the largest democracy in the world, is recognized as an important voice in global affairs.

Shri Shah also launched a book on Skandagupta Vikramaditya on the occasion. He expressed hope that the legacy of BHU would be carried forward by the coming generations of students and scholars.

28-Jun-2019: The enduring legacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab

A statue of Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab for almost four decades (1801-39), was inaugurated in Lahore. June 27 is his death anniversary. His legacy endures for Punjabis around the world.

Ranjit Singh was born on November 13, 1780 in Gujranwala, now in Pakistan. At that time, Punjab was ruled by powerful chieftains who had divided the territory into Misls. Ranjit Singh overthrew the warring Misls and established a unified Sikh empire after he conquered Lahore in 1799.

He was given the title Lion of Punjab (Sher-e-Punjab) because he stemmed the tide of Afghan invaders in Lahore, which remained his capital until his death. His general Hari Singh Nalwa built the Fort of Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, the route the foreign rulers took to invade India.

At the time of his death, he was the only sovereign leader left in India, all others having come under the control of the East India Company in some way or the other.

He combined the strong points of the traditional Khalsa army with western advances in warfare to raise Asia’s most powerful indigenous army of that time. He also employed a large number of European officers, especially French, to train his troops. He appointed French General Jean Franquis Allard to modernise his army. In 2016, the town of St Tropez unveiled the maharaja’s bronze statue as a mark of respect.

Ranjit Singh’s army was a match for the one raised by the East India Company. During the Battle of Chillianwala, the second of the Anglo-Sikh wars that followed Ranjit Singh’s death, the British suffered the maximum casualties of officers in their entire history in India.

Ranjit Singh’s trans-regional empire spread over several states. His empire included the former Mughal provinces of Lahore and Multan besides part of Kabul and the entire Peshawar. The boundaries of his state went up to Ladakh — Zorawar Singh, a general from Jammu, had conquered Ladakh in Ranjit Singh’s name — in the northeast, Khyber pass in the northwest, and up to Panjnad in the south where the five rivers of Punjab fell into the Indus. During his regime, Punjab was a land of six rivers, the sixth being the Indus.

The maharaja was known for his just and secular rule; both Hindus and Muslims were given powerful positions in his Darbar. The Sikhs take pride in him for he turned Harimandir Sahib at Amritsar into the Golden Temple by covering it with gold. Right at the doorstep of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is a plaque that details how in 1830 AD, the maharaja did sewa over 10 years. He is also credited with funding Hazoor Sahib gurudwara at the final resting place of Guru Gobind Singh in Nanded, Maharashtra.

Today, his throne is displayed prominently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Exhibitions on his rule are frequent in western countries home to the Punjabi diaspora. Last year, London hosted an exhibition that focused on the history of the Sikh Empire and the international relations forged by the maharaja.