Varanasi (UP), Jul 18 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said whenever there is any threat to Sanatan Dharma, the tribal society has always stood up to fight it.
He cited a number of examples from history — Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Maharana Pratap and Chhatrapati Shivaji — to buttress his assertion.
Addressing a national seminar on tribal icon Birsa Munda here, Adityanath said, “I feel that whenever there has been any threat to Sanatan Dharma, the tribal society of India has stood on the frontline to fight it.” “… When Lord Ram went to exile for 14 years, he completed 12 years successfully and in the last year, when he reached Panchavati, Goddess Sita was abducted. At that time, Lord Ram neither had the army of Ayodhya nor the army of Janakpur with him. The people belonging to the tribal community of India were standing in the frontline and fighting the biggest power of that time,” he said.
“The war was fought in the middle of Sri Lanka. Even today, the people of India respect that system with the same dignity, with the same pride and with the same feeling of gratitude,” he said.
Adityanath posed a question to his audience asking who were the people with Lord Krishna in his entire campaign? Referring to the Battle of Haldighati, he said when Maharana Pratap had to leave for the forests after the battle, who were the people with him at that time? “They were the Bhils, the Meenas. They were the tribal communities. And to save Maharana Pratap, all of them contributed to revive the army and the result was that he re-established the glory of India by taking back all the forts and castles won by Akbar,” the chief minister said.
The Battle of Haldighati was fought between the forces of Maharana Pratap of Mewar and the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar.
Recalling the support extended to Chhatrapati Shivaji by the tribals, Adityanath said, “When Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was fighting against the most barbaric ruler of that time, the tribal community again came forward in large numbers to support him and the result was that Shivaji Maharaj was successful in establishing the Hindu empire.” He added that during the time of Aurangzeb, would anyone have imagined that a Hindu empire would be established but he (Chhatrapati Shivaji) did that too.
“These things always draw our attention to the fact that the society, which has been standing in the frontline and working for the preservation of India’s heritage, how we have tried to separate it from ourselves and cut it off from the tradition of India,” Adityanath said. PTI NAV ZMN
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