Quotes from Rajmohan Gandhi

Many in the world picture a threat from what they see as a monolithic Muslim world, when in fact that world is sharply divided.

The Minto-Morley package, for which the INC could take some credit, was initially disliked by many Hindu Punjabis.They saw the INC as having unwisely pressurized the Raj, equally foolishly sought a joint Hindu-Muslim agenda, and then failed to prevent a separate Muslim electorate.

These acts represent an inhuman extremism which threatens Muslims and non-Muslims alike and is rejected by a vast majority of Muslims in India and elsewhere.

Like Guru Nanak after him, Baba Farid suggested that at a basic level a Muslim and a Hindu were the same, sharing the joy and pain of being human.

Ordered to open fire at unarmed protesters, Indian soldiers of the Empire's Garhwal Rifles, staged a satyagraha of their own and refused.

No Indian can look back at that 1962 defeat with anything except embarrassment

Speaking out matters. Perseverance matters. Teamwork matters. A common struggle helps, as does restraint or, when required, stepping aside—or stepping forward. Forgetting enmities also helps. Turning for aid to recent adversaries or 'outsiders' can be of benefit. And nursing great goals in the heart can become a contagious force.

the stoutest Nehru defender must admit that the Indian prime minister responded poorly and also unwisely to the challenge that China presented

On 19 November, the Maharaja and his army entered Peshawar. The next day he rode on an elephant through its bazaars—'the first time in 700 years that the city saw an Indian conqueror ride through its streets'.

Jabbar Khan blundered by persecuting Hindu Kashmiris. Many of them left the Valley

Out of a total of 683,149 combatant troops recruited in India between August 1914 and November 1918, 349,688—about sixty percent—came from the Punjab.

when World War I started, and Turkey aligned itself with the Empire's foe, Germany, India's Muslims felt even more conflicted.

John Lawrence said in a letter to his older brother that 'our very existence depends on our gradually reducing the power and consequence of the chiefs'.58

Thus Punjabi became the 'Sikh' language, Urdu the 'Muslim' language, and Hindi the 'Hindu' language. Language was uprooted from ground-level and tied to religion rather than to the varied people who spoke it, or the tract where it was spoken.

Deception, war, fratricide, and the murder or blinding of closely-related rivals would mark virtually every succession in Mughal times, as it had done during the Sultanate.

if a tiny percentage of the wealth stored in India's temples had been spent on defence or war preparations, invasions would have been deterred or repulsed, and resources saved. Preparation for war is sound economics: this is a thesis offered in the Swami's Gita book.

India's passivity over time, and its dislike of clash, offends the Swami. Though admitting that Gandhi broke with that tradition—recognizing that Gandhi was neither passive nor afraid of a clash

Other Punjabi tribes—Gakhars, Khokhars, Syals and Bhattis—are also said to have 'fought valiantly' but to no avail against Mahmud.

Gandhi was a great man but he failed to understand two things: the value of the sword, and the danger from Islam.

The battlefield successes of Mahmud of Ghazni and Shahabuddin of Ghor owed much to the Turks' skills as horsemen, to the quality of their horses, and to clarity in command-and-control.

Rajput forces resisting them did not lack 'in numbers' or 'the martial spirit', but evidently they were 'inferior in terms of organization and leadership…and did not have a unified command'.