6_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History

220 SIX GLORIOUS EPOCHS OF INDIAN HISTORY
of the Hindu sects and many of the Hindu religious tenets
had been established by great personalities, and the Hindu
society as a whole had recognized them and adapted them to
the framework of their religious code, at least so far as they
concerned their followers. In their own individual capacity
the followers of those particular religious heroes obeyed
those particular codes of conduct. But the otherwise, highly
idolatrous Hindu society did not follow these new idols—the
new heroes—who effected individual and mass conversions
and reconversions, carried on equally violent religio-political
counter-offensives. They avenged the humiliation and perse­
cution of the Hindu women on the Muslim women by similar
treatment. The national heroes who did all this have all
along been highly honoured and worshipped as idols among
the Hindus, yet the way they showed, as the most suitable
for the age, was not actively and enthusiastically followed
after they had passed away. As soon as those heroes died their
particular followers relegated to oblivion their practical
lessons of violent or non-violent religious counter-aggression
and their teaching in this respect'^. Why, while the parti­
cular sects of Chaitanya and others have been still alive so
far as the other aspects of their teachings are concerned
and their eulogistic biographies like the *if^ ^sm have been
written and read most devoutly, not the slightest mention
of the armed revenge these very heroes took against the
Muslims is to be found in them. Does it not sound very
strange ? Nor is any heroic ballad seen to have been compo­
sed on their counter-aggression or on their mass reconversions
by any of the minstrels or bards or 'Charans' of those days!
The Hindu society in general felt no urgency of handing down
to the later generations the anecdotes and legends of those
heroic deeds.
651. FOR DEEP DOWN THE MODERN HINDU
MIND IS TOLERANT, WHICH, IN THE VULGAR, MEANS
SHAMELESS OR CALLOUS !
THE MODERN-MOST EVENT OF THOSE TIMES
WHICH LENDS THE STRONGEST HISTORICAL PROOF