For a long time, we have seen fanboys and fangirls of Aurangzeb and Babur projecting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as some hardcore secular icon who was not fighting for higher goal of Hindu revival but was just a great military leader of his time. You often get a story about some random Muslim princess who was sent back to enemy camp with complete honour. This is a classic misappropriation of a Hindu icon based on one incident ignoring his entire life seeped in Hindu iconography and spirit of ‘Hindavi Swarajya’ – literally translated to Hindu self-rule. Maybe, This fallacy among liberals can be attributed to honest ignorance about Indic principles and ethos rooted in our 5000 year civilization.

Typically, general public was not much interested in warfare in ancient India as boundaries kept changing and victory on either side was immaterial to living standard of masses. Arrival of Islamic hordes changed all that. Islamic conquest used to follow widespread death and construction of non-combatant population in conquered territories. When Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj protected honor of Muslim princess, he was reversing moral degradation Hindus suffered in Islamic rule and resorting to ancient Indic principle of protecting non-combatants seeking refuge of victorious king. It was also a shrewd political move to give a message to Muslim non-combatant population across Subcontinent that they need not be afraid of him. It not only ensured that there is no retribution on Hindus in lands ruled by Muslim kings but also made Muslim subjects of Muslim states indifferent to onslaught of Shivaji and his followers on their rulers. It’s very similar to policy expected to be followed by Modi ( Yes, our communal PM) in case he ever hand his hands of POK which is 100% Muslim. Except some avid Nehruvian fans of Genocide porn, nobody expect him to drag women and children out of their homes and murder them. Instead, he would try to earn goodwill and leverage it for political propaganda in Islamic world.

Some coffee table intellectuals also quote example of significant presence of Muslim warriors in Maratha ranks as example of secularism of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Again, as I mentioned earlier, these observation may be genuine lack of understanding of our land on part of Foreign-educated elite high on dope of Marxism. Even in ancient India, defeated army was given a chance to surrender and submit to hegemony of victorious king. Marathas (also Sikhs 100 years later) also extended same options to soldiers of their defeated enemies, irrespective of religion. A Muslim soldier serving Kafirs was considered a Murtad with no place in Islamic army and faced a contempt that is worse than Kafir among medieval Muslims. This also explain a political masterstroke which inflated Maratha ranks with war-hardened warriors without any possibilities of revolt as enemy hates them more than Marathas. One proof of same lies in brutal torture and death of Maratha General Ibrahim Gardi (who was highly respected by Hindu Marathas) at hands of Ahmedshah Abdali after Maratha defeat in 3rd battle of Panipat in 1761. Hindu Marathas were given relatively easy death by same Abdali.

Maratha empire was a distinctly Hindu empire with scope for peaceful existence of non-Hindus. These misappropriation of Hindu icons is more of a result of incapability of left-liberals in grasping anything that is not taught in South Asian Studies department of East Coast Universities but can be learnt only from understanding of ground realities. That also explain why these people are repeatedly defeated by another Hindu icon despite backing of global liberal mafia.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.