Concocted narratives were taught in the country, which created a sense of inferiority among us,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday marking the first Veer Bal Diwas in the Capital. “Any country with such a glorious history must be full of self-confidence and self-respect,” he added.
He underlined what he called the need to be freed from “the narrow interpretation of the past in order to move forward.”
That’s why the country has pledged to remove all traces of “slave mentality” during the Azadi ka Amrit Kaal, he said.
Modi said that wherever there were faces of cruelty, these were overshadowed by the character of heroes. “The Mughals possessed an army of millions, while the Veer Sahibzaade of Guru (the two martyred children) were armed with courage. They did not bow down to the Mughals even though they were alone. This is when the Mughals walled them alive,” he said addressing the gathering at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium.
On January 9 this year, on the day of the Prakash Purab (birth anniversary) of the Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, the Prime Minister had announced that December 26 would be observed every year as “Veer Bal Diwas,” to mark the martyrdom of the 10th Guru’s young sons Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh.
Vishwa ka hazaaron varshon ka itihaas kroorta ke ek se ek khaufnaak adhyaayon se bhara hai (the history of the world is replete with horrific chapters),” the PM said, referring to events that led to the sacrifice of the young sons at the hands of the Mughals.
“But it is also true that whatever happened in Chamkaur and the battle of Sirhind was unprecedented,” he said, adding, “On the one hand was religious fundamentalism and the entire Mughal empire blinded with fundamentalism, and, on the other hand, were our guru our Gurus, teeming with the power of knowledge and penance, and India’s ancient value system (ek or dharmik kattarta aur us kattarta mein andhi itni badi Mughal sultanat, aur doosri or, gyaan aur tapasya mein tape huye hamare guru, Bharat ke pracheen manveeya mulyon ko jeene wali parampara).”
Ek or aatank ki parakashtha to doosri or adhyatam ka sheersh; ek or mazhabi unmad, to doosri or sab mein ishwar dekhne wali udaarta (on the one hand, ultimate terror, and on the other, the pinnacle of spirituality; one side was marked by religious frenzy, the other by a generosity of seeing god in every human being,” he remarked.
