WHY WAS INDIA INVADED SOO MANY TIMES!?
India, arguably the most invaded country in the entire world. This land has been invaded more than 200 times by foriegn invaders with a motive to hold control on this Great and Grand landmass. From the Persian's and Greek's in ancient times, to the Afgans, Turks and Britishers in the mediaeval and modern era, India has seen a dozen of invaders.
But, have you ever wondered why? why was India the charm of the eye for everyone? what was so special about this land that for 2,500 years different rulers and conquerers wanted to have their control over it? Today, let's take a look on some of the major factors that leaded to india being invaded for thousand's of years. Let's begin!
1. Wealth
It is not surprising that India was a very wealthy and prosperous country, It was literally called the "Sone ki Chidiya"(Golden Bird)! India alone contributed about 20-25% of the world GDP just 3-400 years ago, and even more during ancient times. The land was gifted with abundance of natural resources of all kinds. India was fomous throughout the world for gold, diamonds, spices, fabric, etc. The people of India were hard working and brilliant minded, this was also important because slavery was also a major factor while invasions. For most of the invaders wealth was definitely the most important factor, for example the Britishers who after their rule had stolen a whopping 45 Trillion dollar worth of wealth from India. So India was like a gold magnet and hence, it definitely attracted many outsiders.
2. Expansion
The Indian subcontinent was a giant piece of land so it was greatly valuable for anyone to capture India as they can expand their territory to a great extent. India was also very strategically placed with the northern part being protected by mountain ranges which gives tactical advantage in warfare on one hand, and the southern part was surrounded by the ocean giving heavy advantage in trade on the other. The one who has control on India, can enjoy all of these advantages hence, it was also the reason for this land being so contested.
3. Religion spread
Today, India has the 2nd largest popullation in the world. Even in early times the land was heavily populated due to the prosperity that it holded. For many conquerers, spreading of the religion that they followed was a major part of their expansion policies. And with India under their control, they can spread their religion to a very large portion of popullation. The Turks came with a view of spreading Islam and the Britishers also wanted to spred Christianity heavily. Hence, spreading of religion also played a major role in foreigners Invading India.
4. Lack of Unity and Oneness
A major problem within India was that for most of the time, It was generally divided into small kingdoms and provinces that were ruled by individual kings. Even before the Independence in 1947, India was divided into 584 princely states. There was lack of unity as every king just wanted to protect their land but were not concerned about others, or even the country as a whole. Besides, they fought with each other to expand their territories, which created even more of a divide. This was a major advantage for the invaders because if these kingdoms were united when encountering outside forces than they would have easily repulsed them. But, their divide is what led to many foriegn invasions being successful.
5. Too much of Tolerence
India was a very peaceful country, It's philosophy always thought "Atithi Devo Bhava"(A guest has a status of god). We hardly find any point in history during which India invaded other land, and when it did, it never treated the people of the region harshly or brutally. But the country's peace loving nature became sort of a curse for it. The Indians regarded others who invaded them to be like them i.e. peaceful and humble, But we know that this was not the case. The Turks were simply Barbaric and came with the intention of loot and so did others. Another is that India had a very ancient culture but the people never had a feeling to protect this culture and some even thought of it as primitive. India tolerated too much and never really gave a fight back for too long, this also became a major aspect of invasions.
6. Mutiny and Greed for power
Even the greatest empires like the Marathas, Vijayanagar and even the Rajputs were unable to withstand the power of mutiny which led to their ulltimate declines and defeats. When ever people of one company shake hands with their rivals only because of their selfish motives and greed, the invaders have got an incredible advantage. The mutiny of Mir Jafar against Siraj-ud-Daulah in the battle of Plassey is what made the Britishers victorious in one of the most important battles of Indian history. In the 3rd battle of Panipat, the invading army of Ahmed Shah Abdali was supported by the nawabs of India against the Marathas. For these reasons, mutiny and greed also played a major role in invasions of India.
These were some of the major factors that led to India being invaded so many times. But you'll be surprised to know that India was under foreign rule for only about 10% of it's history! Thanks to our great textbooks we are only thought about this small percentage, and not the remaining 90% of the truly rich and glorious history..
Comments
Post a Comment