INDIA SUMMARIZED

by Rajiv Varma American writer, historian, and philosopher Will Durant has written in his  The Story of Civilization  series, book two, “India and Her Neighbors” (1935) that the Mohammedan conquest of India was probably the bloodiest story in history. India before the advent of Islamic imperialism was not exactly a zone of peace. There were plenty of wars fought by Hindu princes. But in all their wars, the Hindus had observed some time-honoured conventions sanctioned by the shãstras ,  the Hindu belief in the  basic laws and principles of civil and social conduct . The Brahmins and the Bhikshus were rarely molested. The cows were not killed. In fact, animals were not eaten at all. The temples were not destroyed and looted. The chastity of women was never violated and they freely walked bare-chested without reports of harassment. The non-combatants were not killed or captured. A human habitation was not attacked unless it was a fort. The civil population was no...