Foreign travelers have remarked off and again that the Hindus, though brave, are effeminate of character. They cannot fight on their own initiative or for their own nation. Some French traveller was of opinion that often a few thousand well-trained soldiers under an efficient commander could easily overrun the whole of this vast sub-continent. Hindu could fight bravely but only when it was a fight amongst themselves. But they could not present a united front to hurl back the foreign invaders. The unbelievable historical fact about Bhaktyar Khilji that he went to conquer all Bengal from Delhi with hardly eighteen horsemen speaks for itself.

 

And unfortunately these conditions are obtainable up to even today. We are never wanting in learning, wealth and bravery. And yet, it was due, as I have said so often, to the want of the consciousness of fundamental Hindu unity, the fact of our being one organic whole. We never realized the secret of organized strength and hence we lost our freedom and peace though always numerically superior to any invading force, for want of organized life. We had no use of our great Hindu majority which otherwise could have been our unique asset. Do we not find that, even in provinces where the Hindus are in overwhelming majority, Hindus live under a constant dread of a handful of Muslims? Even a solitary Muslim goonda feels confident that he can terrorize the whole Hindu population of a place. How pitiable and how shameful for a great people with a population of thirty crores? Every Hindu feels that he is alone and single-handed though the truth is otherwise. This feeling is responsible for the atmosphere of dread and cowardice prevalent in our midst. It has made us wretched and degenerated to such an extent that we are not ashamed to connive at the atrocities committed under our very nose just to save our skin. Not only that our elders do their best to prevent the younger section from acquiring courageous attitude in this matter, they are always discouraged from doing anything for the defence of their honour. It should be our effort therefore, to fight out these unworthy and perverted ideas and replace them by healthy and proper outlook, if we have to put a stop to our downfall.