“Haldighati to Iran: Why winning battles is not enough”, First Post, June 21, 2026
“June 21 is now synonymous with Yoga Day. Yet, it is also etched into the country’s historical memory for another reason. On this day, 450 years ago, a battle was fought on a rugged stretch of Rajasthan whose yellow rocks — as Sir Jadunath Sarkar notes in Military History of India — when crushed yield “a bright yellow sand looking exactly like the turmeric (haldi) powder”.
The place came to be known as Haldighati.
The Battle of Haldighati, fought on June 21, 1576, between the armies of Mughal emperor Akbar and Maharana Pratap of Mewar, occupies a unique place in the Indian imagination. Four and a half centuries later, the question is no longer who won the battle. It is why a ruler who lost it continues to inspire generations while many who won greater victories are remembered only in footnotes.
For decades, sections of historiography have been attempting to dilute the character of Haldighati by portraying the Mughal endeavour as an early form of Indian nation-building in which both the Mughals and Rajputs worked hand in hand. Pratap, in sharp contrast, is shown as someone standing against Akbar’s nationalist project. There is no denying that a section of Rajputs worked with Akbar. In fact, at the Battle of Haldighati, the Mughal army was led by Raja Man Singh. Hailing from the Amber dynasty that had matrimonial alliances with the Mughals, Man Singh was a military general par excellence, and legends say he fought 67 battles and lost none. But then, to project Akbar’s endeavour as a sort of nation-building rests on an astonishing intellectual inconsistency. If Mughal expansion can retrospectively be called national integration, why should the same argument not apply to others, before and after them…….”
Read full article at firstpost.com
An excellent perspective by FirstPost author Utpal Kumar. The gist of which is “…wars are not decided by military victories alone; they are won through civilisational endurance, moral legitimacy and the ability to sustain political purpose long after the battle is over.”
While the core ethics of dharma that governed Maharana Pratap vs the IRGC’s Mohammadan supermacism are poles opposite, their response to naked aggression by might of Islamist Aurangzeb and White arrogant Trump respectively, have resulted in a stalemate that greatly bolsters the vitality of attacked parties. As for “moral legitimacy”, both Maharana Pratap and IRGC are consistent within their systems.
Some people daydream that more than 90% of Iranian people are turning against Islam (or atleast the mosques are empty, some mosque has obscurely placed Zoroasterian light, people are against ayatollahs, etc.), and therefore “truth will win” and the Islamic system in Iran will collapse to be overtaken by secular system. But the sense of beleaguered “moral victory” because of the arrogant way Trump handled Iranian Islamism, is actually bolstering Islamist morale in Iran and amongst Muslims and “seculars” worldwide, and may be undermining morale amongst non-Muslims,
Contrast this with Israel’s approach under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which effectively hobbled Hezbollah (along with Hamas), and have made inroads into Lebanon where Christianity is totally under the thrall of Mohammadanism. Benjamin Netanyahu successfully demoralized Islamists and their dhimmi sidekicks, and provided an impetus to the morale of Mohammadan supermacism afflicted non-Muslims.
This is an important message for Hindus. Both, the “tolerance” of Lebanese Christianity, and the arrogance of Trump’s Christianity are counterproductive, and fighting with moral clarity no matter how a battle spans out is a way to longer term victory in a war.
Let me define sudharm as dharm that is compassionate and empathetic but that does not wilt with dark empathy and dark compassion to it’s enemies.
Million dollar question is what “moral clarity” Hindus are after? Re-defining “Vedas” into “Monotheistic” enterprise or establishing the universal inclusiveness of sudharm, which is inside Vedic, Shraman and everything else. Without this clarity, we are fighting for our defeat in a war.