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Military Science In Vedas

MILITARY SCIENCE IN VEDAS

In his book, Defending India, Jaswant Singh wrote about the lack of strategic culture in India. DRDO wizard Dr Abdul Kalam had, during one of his talks wondered why Bharat had never invaded any other country in its 7,000 years plus history. While I am yet to find detailed answers to the questions posed by these men, I was always curious to know what did the Holy Vedas say on such matters. I was fortunate to find a book Chips from a Vedic Workshop by Inder Dev Khosla where he has briefly shared Military Science in the Vedas.

This article is dedicated to our late Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. After the debacle of 1962, he led India to a great victory over Pakistan in 1965. When the Pakis invaded Jammu and Kashmir in 1965, he took the battle to the enemy’s camp by capturing Lahore. Unfortunately like many Indians before and after him, the gains made by our jawans were bartered away on the negotiating table, invariably for nothing in return. Our magnanimity of making unilateral concessions is probably unparalleled in world history even though we get harmed, killed in the process. We have become so resilient that deaths of thousands of jawans and innocent Bhartiyas in India does not seem to make us angry or may I ask, have we become so selfish?

While I have gone from the book have chipped in with my comments in between.

“When a nation is well protected through arms only then can all forms of knowledge and science flourish”. Very well said. During the period when the Muslims ruled, dominated India, knowledge and education ceased to flourish in the North. Nalanda, like many others was one of the most renowned places of education destroyed by the Muslim invaders. The effects are felt to this day. The South is ahead of the North in terms of dance, music, culture, educational institutions and is in the forefront of India’s knowledge based industries, Information Technology and Biotechnology.

For the defence of a country there...