Thoughts ... ... ...

o Gange Cha Yamune Chaiva Godavari Saraswati
Narmade Sindhu Kaveri Jalesmin Sannidhim Kuru
Pushkaraadyaanii tiirthaani Gangaadhyaah saritas tathaa
Aagacchantu pavitraani Snaanakaale sadaa mama

(Bless with thy presence, O holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari,
Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri. May Pushkara, and all the
other holy waters and rivers always come at the time of my bath)

- A morning prayer that invokes the idea of India’s national integration

o The English were the aggressors in India, and although our sovereign (Queen Victoria) can do no wrong, her ministers can; and no one can lay a heavier charge upon Napoleon, then rests upon the English ministers who conquered India and Australia, and who protected those who committed atrocities…..Our object in conquering India, the object of all our cruelties was money….a thousand million sterling are said to have been squeezed out of India in the last ninety years. Every shilling of this has been picked out of blood, wiped and put in the murderers pockets; but wipe and wipe the money as you will, the ‘damned spot’ will not come ‘out’.

- Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), the British Commander-in-Chief in India in 1843……who led the conquest of Sindh

o In spite of the character of a Crusade which Saint Ramdas’s blessings gave to Shivaji’s long struggle against the Moghul rule, it is remarkable how little remarkable animosity or intolerance Shivaji displayed. His kindness to Catholic priests is an agreeable contrast to the proscriptions of the Hindu priesthood in the (largely Marathi-speaking) Indian territories of the Portugese. Even his enemies remarked on his extreme respect for Mussulman priests, for mosques and for the Koran. Whenever a Koran came into his possession, he treated it with the same respect as if it had been one of the sacred works of his own faith. Whenever his men captured Mussulman ladies, they were brought to Shivaji, who looked after them as they were his wards till he could return them to their relations.

- Dennis Kincaid in The Grand Rebel on the great Indian warrior Shivaji (1630-1680)

o A man convinced against his will
is of the same opinion still

- Anonymous

o India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all

- Will Durant, American historian and author of The Story of Philosophy

o Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it

- Henry David Thoreau

o I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think that we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her cultural and spiritual heritage, and, therefore I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their won, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them – a truly dominated nation

- Lord Macauley in his address to the British Parliament on 2 February 1835

o God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself

- Anonymous

o The spiritual genius of our race has always recognized the fundamental Unity that underlies all forms and classes of diversities and differences

- Bipin Chandra Pal

o Shiv chuy thali thali rozan; Mo zan Hindu La Musalman
Truk ay chuk pan panun parzanav; Soy chay Sahibas sati zaniy zan.

(Shiva lives everywhere; do not divide Hindu from Muslim. Use your sense to recognize yourself; that is the true way to find God)

- Lal Ded or Lalleshwari (1320-92). Kashmir’s greatest poet.

o Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it

- George Santayana, an American philosopher

o Greek culture is no more; so has been the fate of
the Egyptian and the Roman
However India has survived the stresses and strains of time.
There is something in her which defies extinction.
Despite the fact that for centuries, the world has been conspiring
against her

- Allama Iqbal (who later became Pakistan’s national poet)

o To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – that is to have succeeded

- Ralph Waldo Emerson