Surely you have heard the story of Alexander of Macedonia, the great Greek conqueror. His victories are legendary. But very little is taught about his final campaign. It was “disastrous” to quote the adjective of Robert Kaplan of Stratfor and the author of “Monsoon”. After Alexander’s victories over the border states of India, he wanted to venture into the Gangetic plain. But Alexander’s troops
had heard of those massive armies and they refused to go into today’s India to face them. So Alexander retreated and his retreat
became a rout. Alexander was continuously and ruthlessly attacked in by smaller armies of the Indus plain in his retreat. Alexander died during his return journey to Macedonia.
Do you know the name of the young man who led the fight against Alexander? He went on to establish the great Maurya Empire that stretched from areas of Iran , across today’s Afghanistan and spanned both the Indus and Gangetic plains. His grandson Ashok became one of the greatest emperors in the history of the world and his chakra adorns the center of today’s Indian flag.
So wouldn’t you expect Chandra-Gupt Maurya, that great winner and empire-builder, to be hailed by today’s India with numerous Bollywood movies about him and about the defeat of Alexander?
If you do, then you just don’t know core India and its mindset or “culture”. Go to core* Indians in Delhi or the semi-urban, rural areas of the Gangetic plain and ask if they have heard of Chandra-Gupt. Most likely they will say no. Then ask them if they have heard of Sikandar. They will tell you that he was a great conqueror, so great that his name personifies winning.
Who is Sikandar, you ask. They will tell you that Sikandar is the great Iranian Muslim conqueror who conquered the whole world. Yes, Sikandar is the man you call Alexander. You could try and argue that Alexander lived about 900 years before Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam. And they will tell you that you are mistaken. They will repeat to you that Alexander or Sikandar was a great Muslim conqueror from Iran and there has been no one else like him. And if you argue, they will either get angry or sigh, depending on their age and finally point you to Bollywood.
Bollywood’s Worship of Sikandar
They will repeat to you Bollywood’s definition of a winner – “Jo Jeeta Woh Sikandar” (One who Wins is Sikandar). In fact, this widely used phrase was used as the title of a 1992 film, a film that won the Best Film of the Year Award that year.
That film came much later. The most famous film bearing Sikandar’s name featured Bollywood’s legendary hero, Amitabh Bachchan. The 1978 film Muqaddar ka Sikandar (the Sikandar (conqueror) of Destiny) became the 3rd largest hit of the 1970s.
The name “Sikandar” is used in at least 3 other movie titles:
- Ek Aur Sikander (1986) (“One more Sikandar“),
- Sikander (1996),
- Taqdeer ka Sikandar (2002) (“Sikandar of fate“)
Now do you understand how great “Sikandar” is in India? But wait a minute, you say. How does an Iranian conqueror (see you have accepted his Iranian ancestory already) become the greatest winner in the minds of hundreds of millions of core Indians, especially when his army was defeated by the all-Indian Chandra-Gupt?
Core India’s Colonial Heritage
By core India we of course mean non-English speaking India, specifically the non-English speaking people in India’s northern heartland. Despite the bravado of the relatively few British-obedient Indians, core India determines today’s “Indian” culture. This culture has been established and solidified in the past 1,000 years, a large enough period for it to have sunk deep, way deep.
And who has the greatest impact on a region’s culture? The ruling regime, the ruling clan, the “Imperial Class” to use the defining phrase of Stratfor’s Robert Kaplan. And who were the “Imperial Class” of core India for the past 1,000 years – a series of Turko-Afghan-Mongol clans.
Yes. India, today’s aspiring global power India, has been ruled for the past 1,000 years by clans from today’s impoverished Afghanistan. Regimes rose and fell, but each new regime came in from Afghanistan. And the Imperial class was all Pathan, the British name for Pashtuns, the same guys who form today’s warrior Taleban.
Read Indian history from the days of Mahmud of Ghazni (975-1030), from the first conquest of Delhi by Mohamed of Ghori (1150-1206), both Pathans from Afghanistan. Every later regime was either headed by a Pathan or their army was led by warrior Pathans. This includs the Mughals who were Chagatai-Turks and who considered the Pathans beneath them. But read the names of their military commanders and you see numerous Pathans.
Yes, the name Khan is synonymous with Pathan in the Indian subcontinent. And the name Khan carries respect and signifies dominance over Indians. And you think this is old history, don’t you? Then you don’t know Bollywood. Because everyone has heard of the 3 superstars, 1 medium star and 1 budding star of Bollywood, all Khans – Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Salman Khan being the superstars, Saif Ali Khan being the medium and Imran Khan being the budding.
In a 80% Hindu country, 5 of 6 big stars of Bollywood are Muslim Pathans. If that isn’t enough, Hindu women have married 3 of these 5 Pathans, including one of the two women superstars of Bollywood . Now do you see how Muslim Pathan influence continues to dominate core India? And who is the “Daddy” of the Pathans? What culture do the Pathans worship? Iran, that’s who.
Cultural Dominance of Iran over India
According to Stratfor, the Pathans or Pushtuns of today are of mixed Iranian descent. In any case, their “Daddy” has always been Iran. In fact, many of the Pathan conquerors who invaded India first served the Shahs of Iran. If that isn’t enough, the Mughal regime, the regime that so many Indians love to call India’s own, was made firm by the Shah of Iran and several generations later destroyed, plundered by Nader Shah, the then Shah of Iran. The great peacock throne of the Mughals is now in Tehran.
Iran’s cultural dominance over core India was even greater. As Stratfor’s Robert Kaplan writes, “Persian was the lingua franca of North India until 1835“. And Urdu, the language dear to Bollywood hearts, is a derived from Persian.
(Alexander becomes Sikandar by defeating Darius III of Persia)
Now the last piece of the puzzle. What warrior so completely conquered the Persian
empire that even today’s Iran regards him as the personification of “conquest”? The answer is Sikandar, the Iranian name for Alexander. If Iran considers him so, then obviously Iran’s boys, the Pathans do. And if Pathans do, then so do the people they ruled for over 1,000 years – core of the Indian subcontinent. And since all conquerors of core India have been Muslim, it follows that the conqueror worshiped by India’s Muslim conquerors must be Muslim. That is how core India knows Sikandar was a great Iranian Muslim conqueror.
This is why when you think about India’s colonial heritage, think Iran-Pathan, not Britain. Iran-Pathans have dominated Indian culture far longer and far more deeply than Britain has and they continue to do so. Because core India might reject British influence, but they will not and cannot eradicate the deeply embedded Iran-Pathan influence.
So when you meet someone who claims to know “Indian” culture, ask them if they know Alexander was an Iranian Muslim? If they don’t, they are merely British-obedient Indians and not core Indians.
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