Top comments for the article on express tribune:
1. astounding article. I hope u have not touched a raw nerve. I dont know why Pakistan taints Hindus so much. India has been home to such diverse people like Parsis, Jews, Christians, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, atheists apartv from muslims.
Islamic history of India is soaked in bloodshed. We forgave this, but still we are presented in negative light in Pakistan. Pretty funny.
2. Mahmud Ghaznavi invaded India 17 times to loot the wealth from its temples. Mohammed Bin Qasim invaded India and conquered Sindh. On his return to Basra he was put to death by his uncle Hajjaj Bin Yousuf the governor of Basra. The Mughal emperors were also invaders from Mongolia and conquered India and Afghanistan. Aurangzeb was a warrior with expansionist tendencies and had his brothers beheaded and his father imprisoned.
3. Wonderful article- I think Raja Porus should also be included as a hero in our history books. We the inhabitants of Indus valley should be proud of our rich culture and history and we should understand that Arab culture has nothing to do with Pakistan, India or the sub-continent.
Our next generations need to know that the freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Rai Ahmed Nawaz Kharal were brave sons of the soil who fought bravely against the foreign rulers.
4. Good one, do you know Ranjit Singh is probably the only great monarch from Pakistan, historically. Almost all the “muslim kings” or emperors in South Asia were Turkic invaders from Central Asia who ended up in what today is North India(Delhi, Agra). Ranjit Singh is the “son of the soil” of Pakistan, he was one among you, he was from Gujranwala and later made Lahore, the capital of his empire. It was the first time that Punjab was political center of any empire, in fact, much of today’s Pakistan is the legacy of Ranjit Singh’s conquest, had it not been for him, KP & FATA would not have been part of Pakistan today.
70% of his empire’s territory was in today’s Pakistan. Pakistan should respect him, at least give him more respect than you give to people like Ahmed Shah Abdali, Abdali invaded and looted Pakistani cities many times, the great Punjabi poet Baba Waris Shah said about him, “khada peeta wahy da, baqi Ahmad Shahy da”, meaning, “we have nothing with us except what we eat and wear, all other things are for Ahmad Shah”.
5. I would add the heros like Subhash Chander Bose, Bhagat Singh, Ram Muhammad Singh and Jhansi Ki Rani who gave her life while fighting along with Muslims against the British occupiers. These are just a few examples of the brave freedom fighter that we have ignored in our history.
The fact is Aurangzeb inherited the largest Mughal empire, but nobody knows what happened to that empire after him. He put his very old father behind bars, killed his brothers for the crown and put the red hot iron rods in their eyes. How could a person be a hero who has done such horrible things against his own family for the crown?